Yes, Prime Minister
by Les Varioufs
Summary: Sequel to Strange New World! The Doctor, Donna and Snape have arrived back in the right universe, but just how much has it changed since they last saw it? AU
1. The quiet before the storm

**Author's Note: **Before this gets started, thanks should be given to 10Whovian (the Beta of the story) who also helped me come up with the idea for this plot, since I was seriously unable to decide which alien should face the Wrath Of Snape and am seriously lacking in science skills :p Updates should be fairly regular, as with the prequel, and the story will definitely be finished because I hate leaving them on cliffhangers indefinitely (and also because I have been threatened to be hunted down by the Master if I fail to be reliable...)

Hope you enjoy the new story for the new year! And if you haven't read the prequel "Strange New World", I strongly recommend you do - this story will otherwise not make sense. As with the last story, this one will be set in an alternate universe.

**1. The quiet before a storm.**

"There we go!" the Doctor exclaimed, landing the TARDIS with a flourish, though not without a few bumps and scrapes along the way. "A nice long holiday, just what we needed. Told you we could have one without being attacked!"

Donna snorted. "What about the Maloftites? One of them tried to choke me to death!"

"Oh_, that_…that was just a misunderstanding," the Doctor dismissed, fiddling with the screen on the control panel. "Cultural differences and all that."

"I asked one of them for an explanation," Severus revealed, smirking. "He claims that they are a highly advanced society and could not withstand your uncouth way of eating."

"Fork in left hand, knife in right, elbows in, mouth closed," Donna rattled off, looking annoyed, "I did all of that – what more _could_ I do?"

Severus' smirk deepened. "Apparently, forks are considered very backward."

"So what was I supposed to do, eat with a knife and impale myself on it?"

"Actually," the Doctor said vaguely, "I think you were supposed to wish the food into your mouth."

"Oh shut up, Space Boy, this is no time to be funny!"

The Doctor finally looked up, his expression one of confusion. "No, I wasn't being funny. Didn't you see that little square next to your plate? That was a Brain Wave Feeder – it literally feeds you using your brain waves."

"Then why did they give me cutlery and why didn't you _tell_ me any of this?"

Severus smirked. "Cutlery was obviously a backup of sorts, although apparently they need to be better trained to withstand its 'uncouth' nature. And," he added, "I failed to mention it because I needed to be entertained somehow during a boring formal function."

"Fantastic. Idiots, both of you!"

"Yes!" the Doctor exclaimed, bouncing upright and grinning from ear to ear.

"What is it _now_?" Donna demanded.

"I've checked the TARDIS controls, watched a bit of TV – it wasn't brilliant, but then it was a soap – and we're in the twenty first century, Earth."

Severus' eyebrows climbed to his hairline. "You didn't know this?"

Donna glared at him. "Oh, didn't you know? He sets the controls at random sometimes. I'd have told you, but I needed to be '_entertained somehow_'."

Severus sighed, looking truly exasperated. "You hold a grudge better than the Dark Lord himself."

"No, I hold a grudge better than _you_. Now get going, Plant Boy. I want to see where we are."

The Doctor ran to the door and flung it open, all but bouncing into the new atmosphere. Severus looked at Donna in amused exasperation, slight smile on his lips. "Is he like this whenever we land somewhere?"

"Yeah. He's like some sort of energetic, out of space humanoid spring. You couldn't squash him if you tried."

"Good old Earth!"

"See?" Donna quipped, grinning. "He's already rambling."

They watched in amusement as the Doctor strolled forwards, hands in pockets, and inspected a tree nearby before turning his face up to look at the sky. "Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!" He breathed in deeply. "And a nice clear day, too. I tell you, I've seen more of them than I can count but it never gets old…" he trailed off as he turned around, noticing them watching him. "What?"

"Oh, nothing," Donna said innocently. "Let's just go and find the nearest town. I need some shoes."

"Oh…really? You don't want to find a landmark or a famous person…re-invent something?"

"No," Donna repeated. "I want shoes. _Heels_, since you two are both so tall. I feel like a midget in these flats."

Severus smirked. "You would put Filius to shame."

The Doctor stared at her. "Really? Heels?"

Donna gave him The Look.

"Alright…I suppose we could spare some time for that," the Doctor coughed, much to Donna's amusement.

Donna held out her arm and the Doctor obediently linked his with it, still looking around with a look that suggested he was thinking hard. Donna held out her other arm, and Severus frowned at it.

"What?"

The taller man began to look distinctly uncomfortable. "It is improper."

Donna rolled her eyes. "And insulting me every five minutes isn't? You have a weird idea of chivalry." But when he continued to stand there, she didn't press the matter.

"Trees," the Doctor counted, "cool breeze, birds, hills – blimey, there are a lot of hills – we must be…north."

"North," Severus repeated drily. "Where, exactly?"

"Well…" the Doctor span in a little circle, taking Donna with him, though she was too used to this absent minded behaviour by now to complain. "The air is fresh and getting cold, very few cars." He jumped up and down several times. "Good, solid gravel paths – I like that, very good grip, gravel – a few young people…" he broke off as a huge clump of teenagers walked past. "Alright…a _lot_ of young people."

He glanced around, noticing that the path they were on seemed to lead upwards into a forest of sorts. A path forwards and to their left led to a long, solid looking bridge overlooking a river, while a hill directly in front of them snaked upwards and out of sight. Another group of teenagers started up the hill, chattering and laughing. No one seemed to have noticed them and the decidedly out of place TARDIS.

"We're in Durham."

Severus looked doubtful. "Are you certain?"

"Oh yes. And there's always the regional news, which is helpful. I saw a few seconds of it when I was watching the TV," the Doctor admitted.

"So you didn't really know where we are from just looking," Donna teased.

"Well…to a certain extent." The Doctor suddenly found a nearby tree very interesting.

"Yeah, yeah," Donna said jokingly, before giving his arm a jerk and saying, "come on! Those shoes won't buy themselves, you know!"

She happily pulled the Doctor up the giant hill in front of them, Severus on her other side and walking slightly further ahead due to his long strides. Teenagers still surrounded them in every direction, some of them hiking up the hill at unbelievable speeds.

"You know," Donna puffed, "this is really making me realise that I need to do some exercise."

Severus snorted. "Was the running throughout your adventures not a hint?"

Donna studiously ignored him. "Why are there so many children? They're _everywhere_, it's like they're the only people around!"

"Oh," the Doctor pointed, "hang on, I see a professor."

"A professor?" Donna repeated, craning her neck to see who the Doctor meant. "How do you know he's not just a temp or a banker or something?"

"Because," Severus answered, before the Doctor could reply, his voice slow as though he was talking to an idiot, "we are in Durham. Therefore, we are near a university which, rather unsurprisingly, explains the sheer amount of students and one single man dressed in a suit. Since a majority of the students appear to be coming from that direction," he pointed behind him and down the hill, "we can assume that there is a residence of sorts at the bottom of the hill, and that the professor is either a live-in member, or enjoys the scenery."

Donna glared at him. "Yes, alright. You don't have to write me an essay."

"You asked."

The Doctor chuckled. "He does have a point."

"Don't you go encouraging him, Doctor!" Sheepish silence followed as they reached the top of the hill and found themselves on a road, walking towards a roundabout. "I'm glad that hill's over," she added, eager to change the subject. "I think my legs were about to fall off."

"Hang on…" the Doctor glanced at a nearby tree, seeing a poster stuck to it. "It's election time! I love election time – you never know just who you're going to get."

"_You_ do," Severus quipped.

"Well, yes, but sometimes it's made interesting by things you don't read about in the history books. Like this…" he peered closely at the poster. "I have no idea who that man is."

"But if he's running for Prime Minister shouldn't he be mentioned in the history books?" Donna asked. "It'd make sense, wouldn't it?"

"History is written by the victor, Donna. So whoever wins this election may very well not want this man to be known about. The question is why… usually if they want to ruin someone's reputation they just send out a bucket-load of propaganda but this…" he stared at the picture of the uncommonly handsome man on the poster, "is something else entirely."

Suddenly, the Doctor stiffened, his expression intense. Severus stared at the Doctor, beginning to look obviously confused.

"What is it?" Severus demanded.

"It can't be…" the Doctor murmured, spinning around wildly, his eyes searching every surface, nook and cranny for something. "But it's too faint to tell…and it could be nothing, I mean, I've been wrong before."

"About what?" Donna asked.

The Doctor's eyes continued to narrow as he searched their surroundings before he gradually began to keep walking again. "I can't be sure, something - some_one_ that I've met before… and if it's who I think it is, we might be in trouble. Big trouble."

Donna sighed, wondering when they were ever going to have more than a few weeks at a time without some sort of trouble. No matter how small, they always seemed to manage to get themselves into a tight situation, and now was no different. Although…

Donna tried in vain to fight back the apprehension that was gradually burning its way up her throat. They had had a good run, lately. They had only had one or two incidents, nothing major. And knowing the Doctor, she thought as they walked along the sunny road in silence, whatever happens next could very well be colossal just to make up for the peace they had enjoyed.

Somehow, she knew the holiday was over.


	2. What's this about a majority?

**2. What's this about a majority?**

The Doctor's mouth dropped open. "A _hundred and fifty pounds_?" He squawked. "For _them_? Blimey, you people must be in a real recession if the prices have inflated that much!" He glanced at Donna and nodded emphatically at the boots on the desk. "And I always thought the history books _over_ exaggerated this stuff! A hundred and _fifty_!"

Donna rolled her eyes. "Oh, calm down Space Man, it's not like you're _actually_ going to pay for it."

The sales assistant coughed rather pointedly. Severus calmly stepped between the arguing couple and offered the woman a smirk. "Company credit card," he explained smoothly.

The woman raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Oh yeah? Well, I know shoplifters when I see them. If you can't pay for it, get out!"

"Well," the Doctor exclaimed, affronted, "that's no way to treat a customer…" he peered at the woman's shirt, trying to find her name label, "…Jacqu – _ow_! What was that for?" He raised a hand to his stinging cheek, looking more than a bit confused and insulted.

"I _think_," Donna put in, "it's because you were peering at her chest like a creepy old man."

"I wasn't _peering_!" The Doctor argued.

Donna nodded her head at the sales assistant, who was by now eying a back room quite hopefully and making urgent gestures. "You try telling her that."

"Blimey…women, always getting the wrong end of the stick…Jacqueline! Can I call you Jacqueline? Don't call the manager, it's fine, I can pay for it. And no," he held his hands up in surrender, "before you ask, I wasn't looking…well, ogling, drooling, leering or any other action associated with-"

"Either buy the shoes," Jacqueline said loudly and clearly over the Doctor's ramblings, "or get out!"

A man came through the door hurriedly, interrupting whatever sharp retort Severus had been about to offer in the Doctor's defense. He walked up to the counter and leaned on it, smiling nervously. "Jacky? How about sorting out the stock cupboard?"

Jacqueline sighed. "But I cleaned it an hour ago!"

"Just do it, Jacky," the man said, with a hint of annoyance to his voice. Jacqueline stomped out the room and the man leaned further over the counter, lowering his voice to a whisper. "Sorry about her. She's new to the job. Doesn't quite understand the peaceful way of things round here."

"Why employ her?" Severus asked abruptly, ignoring the subsequent look he received from the Doctor.

"Because she's a student and needs money," the man explained. "Besides… not many of them are willing to volunteer to work…you know what teenagers are like, and I desperately needed an assistant."

Donna opened her mouth, an angry retort on her lips, before the Doctor once again interrupted. "Yes, well…all of that aside, how about we just pay for the boots? I'll put it on the company credit card if that's alright."

"Fine, fine," the man said absently, eying the door nervously, "absolutely fine. Just enter your PIN here please, sir."

"Oh, it's a swipe card."

"We don't do them, I'm afraid."

"…Ah. In that case, there _might_ be a bit of a problem," the Doctor began, starting to inch his way out of the shop, "you see, I'm…a bit of an idiot, and didn't think to order a PIN based-"

Severus elbowed the Doctor discreetly, and the other man obediently quieted. "Your sales assistant is neglecting her duties," he pointed out, nodding at the girl who was now poking her head through the door.

"Ah, yes, so you're right. Excuse me just a minute," he added, seeing the girl pulling faces and indicating that he go to the room. "Seems there's a problem…"

"Now, Doctor," Severus muttered.

The Doctor obediently pointed his sonic screwdriver at the machine, smiling in relief as the till processed the false payment. "Brilliant! Where did you learn to do that?"

Severus stared at the Doctor. "You may remember that I was a _spy_," he said dryly.

"Ah! Got the machine working, I see!" The man exclaimed jovially as he returned to his position behind the desk. "Find the right card?"

"Er…yes, something like that."

"There's your receipts and your boots. Would you like a bag?"

Donna shook her head. "Nah…I'll wear them, if that's alright."

"No problem…See you round, I expect."

They made their way out of the shop, meandering along the high street and dodging crowds of students who seemed to be on a study break. Severus cleared his throat and stared piercingly at the Doctor.

"I would never have imagined you as the type of man who steals, Doctor."

"Well…" the Doctor studied the ground, kicking the floor as he walked, "only occasionally. Disasters don't really stop and let you pay for things."

"And he's broke," Donna interjected.

"Broke?"

"Hasn't got a penny."

"But you work?" Severus asked Donna, who made a face.

"Only as a temp. I ran out of money a long time ago. You know this, Plant Boy. Going senile in your old age?"

"So you both steal."

"Isn't this a tiny bit hypocritical coming from you, the big bad Death Eater?" Donna asked. "It was only a pair of boots!"

"And I can use the psychic paper to trick the bank into paying them. The process is only half done, you know."

"You later plan to steal from a bank?" Severus demanded, eyebrows rising higher and higher.

"No!"

"He just hacks into the ATM and works it from there."

"Yes, thank you Donna, that's not really helping."

"Well he hasn't got much of a right to go all high and mighty on us anyway! He even _helped_ us!" Donna pointed out.

Severus opened his mouth to argue before he seemed to reconsider, his face closing off instantly as he carried on walking in silence. Donna and the Doctor followed, looking slightly mollified but unwilling to bring the topic back up. Severus glanced unobtrusively around them as they walked, looking slightly odd in his dark Muggle jeans and long sleeve black shirt rather than the usual robes. He glanced at HMV as they passed, interest playing across his face briefly before he heard the blaring music and walked resolutely in the other direction.

The Doctor and Donna watched in amusement as they trailed along behind him, Donna staggering slightly in her new high heel boots, the sound of her heels noisily echoing down the small street. The Doctor had to put a hand on her arm several times to steady her as she almost tripped over loose cobbles and drain covers slippery from recent rain.

"Hasn't properly been in the Muggle world for a long time, has he?" Donna muttered to the Doctor, who grinned, about to reply but cut off by Donna's abrupt shout of surprise as she almost twisted her ankle.

Finally, Severus span around, the effect not nearly as impressive without his robes, and looked Donna up and down. "What possessed you to buy such impractical shoes?" he demanded abruptly, folding his arms.

Resisting the feeling of being a rule breaking student at school, Donna lifted her chin slightly. "They're not _impractical_."

"What use do they serve?"

"To make me taller," Donna said. "Obviously. Honestly, a professor at a world class school should know that!"

"You know…" the Doctor put in, also looking Donna up and down, "you are quite tall already."

"I'm not taking them back," Donna said sharply, crossing her arms. "I don't care about whether you both think they're _practical_ or not, I like them. And if I have to run away from flesh eating aliens or psychopathic machines again…I'll take them off and throw them."

"I know the heel is sharp," the Doctor said, amused, "but do you really think that'll work?"

"Yup." She pulled the two men aside, seeing a bus heading towards them. "That maniac is driving on the high street!"

Severus snorted. "Of course not. This is fairly common in small towns." He pointed at a small set of makeshift traffic lights nearby. "Pedestrians have to make way for the vehicles moving through town," he explained, "preferably without getting run over in the process."

"Yeah, well… he could have driven slower, instead of hurtling at us like something out of a horror movie!" Donna huffed indignantly, gingerly stepping back into the road and walking across it, heading for a town square. "And how do you know about that?"

"The Half-Blood Prince, Donna," the Doctor said distantly, inspecting a nearby statue.

"Yeah, but if he's a half blood and lives in the magical world most of the time, you'd think that'd mean he's out of touch with the Muggle world. I mean, he didn't even recognise HMV! How can you not recognise HMV?"

A passing student gave her a weird look. "_Potterheads_…" he muttered derisively before walking on.

Severus blinked. "Well…finally someone who is _not_ a fan of the Boy Wonder, book version or otherwise."

"Thought that might appeal to you," the Doctor said, grinning. "I'm surprised you haven't been recognised yet, actually. You look so much like a younger Alan Rickman that you should have fan-girls swarming all over you."

"Maybe it's the hair," Donna mused, eying the greasy locks with distaste. "I mean, it covers your face! No one can even _see_ you in there!"

"That," Severus drawled, "is the point. A spy is dead if he cannot hide his facial expressions."

"Maybe we should give you a haircut then," Donna continued. "When was the last time you changed hairstyles?"

"I had much more important things to worry about than my appearance!"

"Yeah…" Donna looked him up and down and pretended to smirk, though her mouth had a mind of its own and broke out into a huge smile when she saw Severus begin to glare. "Calm down, you prune - it's only a joke!"

"I barely recognised it," Severus shot back, one corner of his mouth twitching as though he was struggling not to smile. "After all, your…ah, _wit_ is so unconventional."

Donna opened her mouth, about to give in to the childish reaction of sticking her tongue out and verbally cutting down the man before her, but was interrupted before she could so much as utter a syllable.

A nearby group of people had loudly started playing instruments, causing several bystanders to jump in shock. Nearly all were students, although there were a few smartly dressed adults standing around the edges handing out flyers. The group of time travellers stood rooted momentarily to the spot, listening to the music which seemed to be a cross between both old and new music styles.

Donna suspected that it was designed this way in order to appeal to a wider audience, though to her it just sounded like the seventies had been roughly dragged into the twenty first century, kicking and screaming as it went.

A teenage boy stepped up to the microphone, strumming his guitar and taking a deep breath. Donna braced herself for what she knew would be a loud explosion of noise.

"Vote John White!"

Donna could distinctly see Severus rolling his eyes. "The upcoming musical talent of the world…" he said into Donna's ear, almost having to shout over the noise.

"He's pure as light!"

"And new writers," Donna replied. "The lyrics are _amazing_!"

She dimly heard Severus chuckle as he moved away from her again, expression showing her that he was struggling between the reaction of laughter and wanting to strangle the performers. The Doctor, however, was absently tapping his foot as he glanced at the crowd around him, noting that they were mostly smiling although a few, like Donna and Severus, looked noticeably annoyed.

"Just what we always needed!" The Doctor exclaimed. "Musical politics! I always said it would work!"

"Whatever _this_ is – and it _isn't_ music," Donna shouted over the din, gesturing the people before them, "it does _not_ work!"

"Got everything down alright!" The song continued. A drum boomed.

Severus winced. "Muggles."

A man in a suit came over to them and handed them each a brightly coloured flyer enthusiastically, his smile not diminishing even when Severus refused his with a snarl that would have sent even the Basilisk of Slytherin running home with its tale between its legs.

Donna peered at her flyer. "Hang on – it's the same man we saw before! The really handsome man from the poster!"

The Doctor looked up from his own flyer and looked around at the crowd before returning his gaze to the performers, his eyes narrowing. "Is it just me, or is this slightly unusual?"

Beside Donna, Severus nodded. "Everyone is listening. Under usual circumstances, no matter the politician's fame, they would be getting on with their lives."

"But here…" the Doctor muttered, spinning around, "they're all rooted to the spot." He sniffed the air again, his eyes narrowing. "Something weird is going on here."

"You don't know for certain," Severus pointed out.

"I can sense it. Don't ask – it's a bit hard to explain and it shouldn't really be possible. I thought he'd disappeared – well," the Doctor babbled, "he never _really_ disappears and really, it's probably only to concoct another plan to enslave every other living being." He took a deep breath, running his hands through his hair. "But I've been wrong before – it might not even be him at all…"

"That helps," Donna said, looking around the crowd.

"John White!" The singer yelled, now starting to head-bang, "You'll find he's alright!" Two more booms of the drum and the song was, mercifully, over.

Severus shook his head as if to clear his ears, a deep frown pulling at his mouth. "Thank Merlin…"

"So," Donna summed up, "we know that John White is running for elections." The Doctor nodded absently. "Do you know him?"

"No…I don't have a clue who he is and he doesn't even look remotely familiar…usually he does. That is, if it's who I think it is, which it might not be..."

"Who?" Severus demanded. "Do you know anything of what is happening?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No, but I'm going to find out. Come on!" And with that, he ran over to the band and started talking to them.

"Think we should follow him?" Donna asked.

"Most likely."

"…and I've been living in a cave for the past few months," the Doctor was saying affably, making two of the band members grin, "so could you possibly tell me who John White is?"

"He's the future Prime Minister of Great Britain!" One of them exclaimed, as though it was obvious which, Donna reflected, it probably would have been had they not just come from a different planet and time entirely.

"Right," the Doctor replied, nodding. "Good, but where is he from?"

They exchanged glances. "London," one of them said at last.

"Does he have famous parents? Politicians in the family? High connections, anything like that?"

"Er…" they started giving the Doctor uncertain looks. "Actually, not much is known of his family. Mr White likes to keep his private life a secret."

"Afraid of scandal?" Severus asked sharply.

"He just likes his privacy. If you were famous, would _you_ like the newspapers following your every move?" One of them demanded. They peered closely at Severus. "Don't I know you?"

"No," Severus answered shortly, masking his face behind his hair, "you do not."

"You look familiar…"

"What does he stand for, exactly?" The Doctor asked, bringing the teenagers back on topic.

"Good, fair policies," one of them said. "World peace, a better space programme, abolition of world hunger and the evening out of social gaps."

"So he's a hippy," Donna said, straight faced.

"Well…" one of the young men looked slightly affronted for a moment before finally giving in with a sigh and nodding. "You could say that, yes."

"Who else is running for the elections?" Severus demanded.

They all laughed. "Might as well be no one," a girl replied, "the amount of support Mr White's got. The majority of the country wants him in power right now!"

"And who is the current Prime Minister?" Severus asked.

"You're kidding!"

"I also live in a cave."

The boy shook his head in wonder before replying, "David Cameron."

The Doctor nodded. "Right, I see. You don't happen to know who Richard Stephenson is, by any chance?"

The teenagers glanced at each other blankly. "Who?"

"Just…someone famous where I come from, doesn't matter." He grinned at them. "Thanks for your help." He steered his two companions away from the band, who began packing up their instruments, talking amongst themselves. "Someone is trying to change the time line."

"How?" Severus asked.

"If David Cameron is now Prime Minister, then Richard Stephenson is meant to succeed him. But for some reason…no one even seems to know who he is, which means he's either a very minor player, which he shouldn't be, or he's not in the running at all."

"And that would be a problem," Donna added.

"Yes, I deduced that," Severus shot back, the corner of his mouth twitching.

Donna decided to ignore him and turned back to the Doctor, who was now striding quickly through town, forcing Donna to practically run to keep up with him. "So what do we do? Do we change this or let it happen?"

"We can't let it happen, Donna. John White is never meant to be Prime Minister, and in my experience…when people become what they were never meant to be, it means trouble. We need to find out what's happening," he added, increasing his pace.

"The TARDIS?" Severus questioned brusquely.

The Doctor nodded. "And Donna, maybe you should change shoes again."

Donna puffed and almost fell over, grabbing onto Severus' arm to stop her fall and almost taking him down with her. "We don't have time! I'll just manage!"

Severus snorted. Donna glared at him as she hauled herself to her feet, still slightly breathless. "Oh shut up. You wouldn't be laughing if you were wearing heels in a cobbled city!"

"Which," Severus said snidely, "is precisely why I am not. Perhaps you should follow my example more often."

Donna growled but didn't waste any energy replying as she struggled to keep up with the Doctor, who seemed to be floating along the cobbles, oblivious to any obstacle. Severus grabbed her arm as she once more almost went crashing onto her face and helped her along the road, despite his snide grumblings and insults.

None of them noticed the man who had followed them since he had seen them step out of the TARDIS.


	3. Trains and Stolen Property

**3. Trains and Stolen Property.**

"It's gone!" The Doctor exclaimed in dumbfounded shock, swivelling around in circles as if the TARDIS was hiding from him. "I don't believe it! How can it be gone – no one can break into it!"

"Helicopter?" Donna suggested.

"But we would have heard a helicopter flying above us, not to mention seen it if it's got a TARDIS hanging beneath it."

"Not," Donna pointed out, "if it flew past during that song. We could barely hear ourselves think during that, remember?"

"Oh, I thought it was lovely…but _gone_," the Doctor said again, looking lost.

"I believe this means that something sinister is happening," Severus said wryly. "It is no coincidence that your TARDIS disappeared soon after we arrived. We must have been seen or at the very least detected."

"Well of course we were, there were all the students…" the Doctor trailed off.

"Maybe one of them did it!"

Severus snorted. "Don't be ridiculous. Students would never have the intellectual capacity to move a TARDIS without being seen, especially considering its size and the population of Durham."

"So maybe we should ask people if they've seen a giant phone box being stolen!" Donna retorted. "And you underestimate students, you know! They're clever – they're the future of this country!"

"Heaven forbid."

"You already sound like a grumpy old man," Donna shot back. "You'll be sitting by a fire next with a cane and pipe and moaning how things were better 'back in the day'!"

Meanwhile, the Doctor was scouring the forest with his sonic screwdriver, muttering to himself and shaking it next to his ear. "Come on, come on! Oh – yes!" He suddenly grinned and started running. "This way!"

Before they even realised what they were doing, they were running after him, watching in confusion as he stopped now and then to shake the screwdriver and then set off again at a dead gallop, sometimes in the opposite direction he had come from.

"What's going on?" Donna demanded.

"TARDIS tracker," the Doctor explained, hurtling back into town. "You don't think I'd leave it without a way to find it, do you?"

"I don't know," Donna replied. "You've lost it before and never used this."

"New invention," the Doctor said. "Call me old fashioned, but I got fed up with my property constantly being stolen."

"So where is it, exactly?"

"Don't know. Somewhere in town, from the looks of things."

"Doctor," Severus said, once more stopping Donna from tripping over, "if that were the case we would have seen it."

"True…but you never know. They might have had invisibility cloaks or something - not your ones, Severus, Star Trek style ones..."

They reached the town square, which mercifully had no singers in sight, and began running towards a large cinema.

"Aha!" The Doctor exclaimed, reaching a cross-roads and looking at the sign at the side of the pavement. "Train station!"

"Why would it be at the train station?" Donna asked, utterly confused. "Why steal a TARDIS and then hide it among _trains_? Doesn't that kind of defeat the point?"

They dashed across the road, almost getting run over in the process, and ran straight up a large hill, ignoring the confused looks of passers-by as they caught sight of the Doctor running with his arm outstretched, sonic screwdriver beeping. Finally, after what felt like hours, they reached the tiny, almost non-existent train station and panted to a halt in the reception area.

The Doctor sprinted over to a notice board and looked at the schedule. "Ah. Slight problem…"

"What?" Donna puffed.

"It's in London."

"London?" Severus asked, astounded. "How can you possibly know that?"

"My screwdriver gave me hints - it would give me more, but I haven't finished installing the new function yet," the Doctor replied vaguely, shaking the piece of equipment again and pointing it at the board. "Nope, not broken, so definitely London."

"Why would it be there?"

"Big, capital city, Donna. Lots of things go on there, usually things we end up trapped in. And it's also where Parliament is, if I remember correctly."

"Are you suggesting that politicians are responsible?" Severus asked, somewhat amused despite the circumstances.

"That or the police. Who else could steal and hide a TARDIS in London that fast without us knowing? Donna, if you hadn't taken so long trying on shoes, we might have been able to stop them."

Donna bristled, but felt slightly guilty as she realised that she was partially responsible for their current problem. "I only took a few hours! And you were thinking of looking at museums and cathedrals anyway, Space Man, so don't take it all out on me!"

"Right, sorry. That was uncalled for."

"Thank you. Honestly, sometimes you really are brainless."

"The next train is in five minutes," Severus announced, peering at the board. "We will have to switch, but we should get there in a couple of hours."

"Right – allons-y!" The Doctor said, walking through the ticket barrier and handing his psychic paper to both of them in turn so that they could also get through. No one so much as batted an eyelid; the platform attendants seemed too busy giving directions to notice as they sidled onto the platform they needed and sat down on a nearby bench, waiting patiently for the train.

"I forgot British trains were always late," Donna muttered fifteen minutes later. "What's going on – are people stealing tracks from the line again?"

"Stealing tracks from the line?" The Doctor repeated, looking at her in confusion. "When does that ever happen?"

"Laugh all you like, but it happened to me once when I was trying to go on holiday. Some people stole from the lines and the train was delayed by an hour at least. And it didn't really help that we had loads of suitcases and were squashed in like sardines."

"Just wait until they invent teleportation," the Doctor said happily. "You'll love that."

"Getting my atoms cut into pieces and risk being lost forever?" Donna asked. "I'd prefer to travel by horse and cart."

Severus glanced between them in confusion. "Teleportation?"

"It's like travelling by Floo," the Doctor explained, "but instead of stepping into a fireplace as a whole person and coming out the same at the end, you step onto a pad in the ground, sort of like a circle, and just disappear. Then you're re-created in another location…have you seen Star Trek?"

"No," Severus replied shortly. "I was never allowed to indulge in such entertainment."

"No one I explain teleportation to has ever seen Star Trek," the Doctor continued after a brief, awkward silence. "It would make things so much easier if they had."

"It sounds simple enough to understand," Severus said. "When is it invented?"

"Spoilers," the Doctor replied regretfully. "If you're travelling with me, you'll see it soon enough and it's much more fun when it's a surprise."

A whistle sounded, and the train at long last made an appearance, drawing slowly into the station and settling down with a quiet hissing, the doors opening and allowing a handful of people to clamber out of each compartment. They stood aside until everyone had disembarked and then climbed on, relieved to find that the trains were not too crowded at this time of day.

The Doctor flopped inelegantly into a seat next to a table and Donna sat next to him, leaving Severus to sit opposite, staring contemplatively out of the window.

"What are we going to do when we get to London, then?" Donna asked as the train began to move off.

"We hunt down the TARDIS, and hopefully whoever stole it is involved in whatever is going on."

"You don't think it's like…a dictator from another planet trying to get control of us, do you?" Donna asked.

The Doctor nodded. "I'd bet my sonic screwdriver that it is. But the question is why and who…"

"Are you going to start sniffing the air again?" Donna asked.

The Doctor halted mid-act and glanced at her before he settled back in his seat. "It's getting stronger," he finally said, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Could it be psycho-somatic?" Severus suddenly asked.

The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows thoughtfully. "No…I don't think so, but then if it was, would I know it?"

"You mean…you're so used to it being whatever it is that you're imagining it?" Donna asked. "But…can Time Lords even do that? I thought they were above things like that."

"Time Lords are still beings with failures," the Doctor replied. "They're not perfect."

"You always make it sound like they are."

The Doctor turned away from her, gazing out the window. "That's because I prefer to think of them that way. Time Lords are far from perfect. They have wars, anarchy and mistakes just like anyone else – worse than anyone else, in fact," he admitted. "It's terrible to see."

"You've seen it?" Donna asked softly, dimly aware of Severus hanging onto the Doctor's every word, a frown of concern on his face as he began to piece things together, no doubt aided by the memories he had seen in the Doctor's mind.

"Many times." The Doctor sighed and sat up straighter, turning to look at them once again, his face reflecting an intense internal struggle before he finally decided to come to a decision. "I-"

"Tickets, please!"

Donna cursed in the privacy of her own mind. This always happened. Whenever she got close to discovering something personal about the man she travelled with – the intensely secret man she travelled with – something always interrupted it.

The Doctor held out his psychic paper with a smile. "Ticket for three," he said brightly, as though the conversation they had just had had never existed.

The man nodded and saluted. "Right you are, sir." He moved on to the next group of seats. "Tickets, please!"

"Psychic paper," the Doctor said, tucking it back into his jacket pocket, "the most useful thing in the world. Now, who's up for some travelling word games?"

"But, Doctor," Donna protested, "you were going to tell us-"

"Enunciate?" The Doctor asked, pretending not to hear her. "I know we don't have any of the pieces we need, but we can make it up as we go along. Or maybe charades? Though that might be a bit difficult to do in the carriage…"

Donna opened her mouth, but Severus shook his head discreetly at her. Sighing, Donna sat back in her seat and prepared for hours of the Doctor's nonsensical ideas of entertainment. Whatever decision he had come to, she thought in annoyance, he had decided that it had been a bad idea. And just when she was getting close to finally understanding him…

oOo

"It's…well, it's round," the Doctor described, "sort of. Actually, no, it's completely round, but with something sticking out the top of it…like a pipe cleaner – do you know what that is?"

"I am familiar with the concept," Severus answered dutifully, though he looked like he wanted to just tune the Doctor out completely.

"Right, and you light the end of the pipe cleaner-y thing, which sparks-"

"An old fashioned bomb," Donna said. "Honestly, the things you make us guess are so _easy_."

"I could do more difficult ones if you like," the Doctor replied, "but you'd never get them. Being from past Earth and all that."

"Just because I'm _backward_."

Severus sighed. "We're here," he announced, nodding slightly at the window, through which they could see a London station platform. "At long last. You two very nearly drove me mad."

"Bit late for that," Donna quipped, grinning, as they got off the train. "Which way now?" She asked the Doctor, who was once again examining his sonic screw driver.

"I don't know…"

"How can you not know?" Severus demanded. "A few hours ago, your screwdriver was giving you 'hints'!"

"It's just…stopped. It's almost like there's nothing left at the other end to communicate with the screwdriver…" he trailed off, and he and Donna shared a brief look.

"_Nah_," Donna scoffed. "The TARDIS isn't gone…is it?"

"Either that, or whoever took it knows enough about alien technology to know how to dampen the signal I was receiving…" he shook the screwdriver again. "And it's not even a temporary interruption; it seems to be permanent, which means it was deliberate."

"But why now?" Donna asked. "Why not right after they stole it?"

"Perhaps," Severus suggested, "they have just discovered the tracking device. Or they are amusing themselves."

"Well it's not very funny."

"Exactly," the Doctor said. "It isn't. It's the complete opposite of funny. And bordering on criminally insane if you ask me."

Donna sighed. "So we've been led on a deliberate wild goose chase."

The Doctor nodded. "Yes, unfortunately."

"Without a TARDIS."

"Yes."

"Which means," Donna continued, "that we'll be without the TARDIS for the foreseeable future and have nowhere to stay, unless we search every building in London for it."

Severus shook his head. "Aside from that being completely impossible, given the size of London, the criminals responsible may have had the opportunity to once again move it. We have walked straight into a trap."

"What a surprise," Donna muttered sarcastically. "Why is it that whenever I travel with men we end up in the most obvious traps possible? When it was with Scuba Steve, we almost ran out of air and drowned when we got trapped in an underwater cave – James once got me caught in Ibiza with nothing but a toothbrush because the idiot forgot to lock the hotel room door…"

"Interesting anecdotes, but they have no place here."

The Doctor sighed, running his hands through his hair. "This is a mess. We'll have to look for clues."

"What, like giant space ships hovering over Buckingham Palace?"

"…Things like that, yes."

"Space ships over Buckingham Palace?"

"Long story," Donna said. "The Titanic almost crashed into it."

Severus looked even more confused after that limited explanation. "The Titanic was a ship that sank," he said slowly. "Unless you mean to tell me that in this universe it was a space ship piloted by aliens?"

"There were two. The Titanic did crash, but there's also that space ship I mentioned, which the Doctor tells me was a cruise ship for rich, intergalactic travelling aliens."

They began walking in the first street they saw, keeping their eyes peeled for anything suspicious. Severus seemed still to be mulling over the fact that a spaceship could be called Titanic even while Donna was telling him more outlandish stories.

"And I once met talking water."

"Surely that is impossible."

"Not when it's telepathic," the Doctor put in. "The water came from clouds, rained ordinarily on a person's head and dripped into their ears without them noticing. From that point on, it was a translator of sorts for puddles anywhere you went…"

Severus' eyebrows rose. "The Babel Fish."

The Doctor looked at him askance. "The what?"

"Babel Fish. An organism that you place in your ear in order to understand alien languages."

"How could you possibly have had that in your universe?" The Doctor demanded, looking confused. "And how did you know about it? I thought you were more interested in magic?"

"It is from a novel, Doctor. Even the Muggles have not yet managed to invent something as absurd as a Babel Fish. It is in the 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'."

"Never heard of it."

Severus made a sound of surprised consideration. "Either you are not as well read as you claim, or it does not exist here."

"Well…I haven't read every book in existence."

"You're such a prune!" Donna exclaimed, laughing. "Even I've heard of it – Zaphod the alien and Arthur who's always in a dressing gown, poor guy, must get really cold on those alien planets with just that on…"

Severus snorted. "Surely the film rings a bell?"

"No…can't say that it does. When was it released?"

"1999," Severus answered promptly.

"2005, here," Donna countered.

"Ah. That'd be why...I was somewhere else."

"And," Donna said, grinning at Severus, "it had Alan Rickman in it."

"It did not," Severus countered, now looking just as confused as the Doctor.

"He played Marvin the Paranoid Android?" Donna said. "'Here I am, brain the size of a planet' – not ringing any bells, is it?"

"That's because he hasn't got Alan Rickman in his universe," the Doctor explained, "or at least, not yet or not in that way. Someone else must have played him."

Severus nodded. "Rowan Atkinson."

Donna almost choked at that. "_Mr Bean_ played a depressed android?"

"I suppose it _is_ possible," the Doctor considered, when Severus just gave her The Glare. "He did play one of the most sarcastic and, well… _Slytherin_ television characters of all time. If he can do that, he can do a depressed android."

"If you say so," Donna snickered, "but to me that's just like putting Mr Bean in a suit and telling him to move like C3PO…"

"Hang on!" The Doctor stopped moving abruptly, and Donna ran into him with a small exclamation of surprise.

"Give me some _warning_, Space Man!"

"Look at that wall."

Donna followed the Doctor's outstretched finger and looked at what appeared to be an ordinary shop entrance to WH Smith. On the wall next to the door, colourful posters were arranged almost like a collage, all of them overlapping and clashing with each other, no discernible organisation visible.

"Graffiti."

"Propaganda," Severus countered.

"Both, actually," the Doctor replied, moving closer to examine them and towing the other two along with him. "And guess who it is."

"I don't think we really need to," Donna said, deciding to completely ignore the sarcasm in the Doctor's voice. "He's everywhere, isn't he? He'll be on the buses next!"

Donna looked up as Severus snorted. Following his gaze, she saw a stereotypical London double decker bus, filled to the brim as usual with people and boxed in by traffic. On the side, in an enlarged photo and smiling at them from a garishly white background was a dark haired, tanned man with perfectly aligned, pearly white teeth. From what Donna could see, he wore an immaculately tailored black suit, contrasting completely with the white backdrop, and a matching black tie that was perfectly centred. His hair was long but not messy, instead combed into the latest fashion, highlighting the colour of his intelligent brown eyes.

Underneath him, elegant red lettering spelled out the predictable "Vote John White" that seemed to follow them around the country.

"You really have a talent for timing, don't you Donna?" The Doctor asked in amusement.

Donna's mouth dropped open, shut, then closed again. "No wonder people are voting for him."

The Doctor sniffed. "Yes…I suppose he is quite handsome."

Donna turned to stare at him incredulously. "'Quite'? _Quite_? Try drop dead gorgeous! It's a wonder people ever actually listen to his policies instead of just voting for him by looks alone!"

The Doctor's eyes narrowed as he looked at the bus. "Yes. How very strange…"

"What is it?" Severus asked. "A form of Legilimency?"

"Oh come on, they're not being brainwashed!" Donna scoffed, before noticing the Doctor's serious expression. "Are they?"

"It's beginning to look like it." He turned his back deliberately on the bus and stood facing WH Smith, hands shoved into his pockets.

Donna glanced up and saw a CCTV camera swivel from them to focus on the other end of the street. A passing commuter glared and muttered at them as he dodged them, no doubt late for a meeting. A homeless man shuffled past, hopefully thrusting his hand into the faces of rich looking people. Finally, he was given what seemed to be a lot of money and profusely shook the stranger's hand before running off, whooping in glee.

"Let's look at the facts," the Doctor said, and Donna braced herself for a long list of motives and babble, used to the process by now. "We come here to twenty first century Britain, the first half. I'm not sure when, exactly, but it's definitely after the year 2011. Judging by the pollution content in the air and the amount of buildings, it is…"

"2015," Severus announced, holding up a newspaper. "October."

"Right," the Doctor said, looking slightly embarrassed as Severus smirked, "thank you. Good. Now, that means that Earth still isn't really involved in space expeditions or anything to do with aliens – at least, not that the general public know of. Of course, there are a few incidents at Christmas in between, threatening their safety, but apart from that, nothing major."

"So that's why his space programme is so popular," Donna commented. "People are getting curious, impatient and scared."

"Exactly. And the population is also probably still growing as there are further advances in medicine and technology, which means that there is going to be more famine, less land, and ultimately more political problems and fights."

"World peace and the end to hunger," Donna supplied.

"And," the Doctor continued, "as always there's going to be a class division, which is probably increased when more technology means less jobs in factories and other areas. And from the looks of things, the recession is still going on from a few years ago, if a bit worse. Though to be fair it might have picked up a bit in between, you never know with Earth's crazy stockmarket."

"He is preying on basic wants," Severus summed up.

"Basically, yes."

"So…" Donna stared at the colourful wall before them, the cogs in her mind turning, "that means that really, he isn't going to be very good. He's promising too much, isn't he, and won't ever achieve it."

"Exactly. A lot of politicians do it to an extent – you can't deny it makes them popular – but in practice it's actually very difficult to achieve everything you say you will," the Doctor nodded.

"But he must know that," Donna argued. "He obviously has some idea of what he's doing, or he wouldn't be so popular, would he? So if he knows that he's setting himself up to fail, why bother doing it?"

"Some will do anything for power," Severus said bleakly.

"Or he's incredibly naïve and genuinely thinks he can do it," the Doctor countered, "though I have to admit, that's probably not it. It rarely ever is, unfortunately."

"And," Donna continued, as something else occurred to her, "wouldn't the voters know this as well? I mean, they're always the ones who are moaning about how politicians are always failing at everything. There's always a large opposition to everything – protests, speeches, posters and hats – but here there's nothing."

"Yes…" the Doctor nodded, his expression one of intense concentration. "Almost rings a bell, doesn't it?"

"Does it?"

"Think, Donna, when you were on Earth, before you travelled with me…someone else achieved mass popularity."

"Yeah, but he went mad, didn't he? Just buzzed off somewhere and we never saw him again."

"He didn't disappear. I took him with me, away from Earth, because I knew what he'd done to it and what he could do if I left him there. You won't remember, because you weren't there, up inside that base floating in the sky, the only place where time was not reversed…"

Donna stared at the Doctor as though he had gone mad, before the penny dropped and she felt annoyance welling up inside her. "Don't tell me I missed that one as well!"

"Don't feel too disappointed; everyone did, and you really, _really_ didn't want to be there," the Doctor said solemnly. "Even his wife regretted it by the end…she looked like she could have killed him, if I hadn't picked up the only weapon in the room."

"But if he was so evil and almost destroyed the world," Donna asked, "why didn't _you_ kill him? Why did you take him with you, of all things? And what happened to him?" She held up a finger. "You're not…_hiding_ him in the TARDIS, are you, in some sort of secret outer space prison cell?"

"No!" The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck, obviously regretting starting this conversation.

"Doctor," Severus said quietly, "what happened to him?"

"I…" the Doctor's breath hitched and he swallowed. "He escaped. I tried to stop him, but he grabbed a spare portable teleporter I had in the TARDIS, just when I'd given him a chance to live properly and not like a prisoner – I thought he'd stopped!" The Doctor defended, his eyes wide and beginning to look frantic as Donna and Severus stared at him in disbelief. "I thought he'd finally stopped craving power, thought he'd decided to try to reform…" he broke off, seeming to realise how he sounded.

There was an awkward silence as Donna debated what to say without it pushing the Doctor over the edge, either into self-anger or despair. Severus seemed to be in the same predicament, his mouth narrowed and eyes slightly more approachable than normal, but he didn't move a muscle.

"I should have known better," he finally said brokenly.

"Doctor…you can't predict the future," Donna finally ventured. "You couldn't have known-"

"He was a psychopath!" The Doctor exploded, causing several people around them to jump and everyone else to give them a wide berth, wary looks on their faces. "A megalomaniac, shamelessly manipulative, sadistic… but he was clever – oh he was _brilliant_! If he'd stopped trying to dominate people and master them, he could have been great, helpful, the perfect…" he trailed off once more, mouth snapping shut as he realised he had probably revealed too much.

"The perfect person to help and travel with you?" Severus asked gently, warily observing the Doctor for signs of any more emotional explosions. The Doctor just continued to stand there, brokenly staring into space, unmoving. "An intellectual equal," he prompted before pausing, seeming to search his memory, "a force to be reckoned with."

Donna resisted the very strong urge to sigh, knowing that once again she was the one who had no idea what was going on. She decided to keep quiet and just listen, in the hope that all would become clear.

And then Severus went slightly too far.

"Someone who would never leave. Or die."

The Doctor jerked, his face the most pained that Donna had ever seen it before he pulled himself together once more and pulled himself up straight with almost agonising slowness. "But I ruined it, Severus. I was stupid. Brainless. And now he's out there, somewhere, running rampant and I don't know where or what he's planning!" The Doctor drew a rattling breath. "No," he said slowly. "I can't."

"Can't what?" Donna finally ventured, realising that silence would get her nowhere now that the Doctor was reverting to his usual method of bottle-up-until-he-exploded. But the Doctor never answered, instead walking slowly away, through the darkening streets of London.

"What was that all about?" Donna asked Severus as they walked slowly behind, giving the man a bit of space.

"I have a rough idea," Severus said guardedly, "but I am not sure how much he wishes to reveal-"

"I'm here too, you know!" She said, getting angry. "I can help! I've known him longer than you, been in more battles with him – what if this time, it's something important you're not telling me?"

Severus sighed. "I have only images and can only draw conclusions from it."

"What are they?"

"A man with a face that rarely changes, but whose persisting insanity is a constant threat to those around him. A…" he frowned then, looking slightly uncertain, "comrade, of sorts, from the past. A Saxon…"

"Saxon..." she mused. "Sounds like the guy who went mad. Anything else?" Donna asked wryly. "More riddles that I can't work out, perhaps?"

"They are all I have." Donna knew that was as close as she would ever get to an apology from the man, so she nodded. "And…drums," Severus said again.

Donna nodded, turning again to watch the man still walking slowly ahead. He had brought his head up again and was walking with his hands in his pocket, looking like his usual, casual self, but Donna knew from the fact that he had not yet joined them that he was not ready. He was still working through the memories whirling through his mind, repressing or dissecting the associated emotions.

She sighed, wishing that for once, just once, he would talk and understand that, even though she was human and hadn't lived for as long as he had, had never been through as much as he had, she could still listen and offer support, even if she could never even hope to solve his problems.


	4. Hotels and Investigations

**4. Hotels.**

"That should do it," the Doctor announced some time later, nodding his head at a hotel across the road.

Donna stared at it in disbelief. "You're joking! It's only one star!"

"But it's the closest we've got," the Doctor pointed out, "and unless you want to walk through London in the dark for miles to get to a better one, since we don't know where one is and haven't got the TARDIS, we'll have to stay here."

"Wonderful," Donna muttered.

Severus snorted. "Would you prefer people waiting on you hand and foot?"

"It'd be better than cockroaches in the shower and spiders under the pillow!"

"Count yourself lucky that you don't live in the rainforest," the Doctor said. "The insects there are huge. It's very interesting, actually. Did you know," he rambled, already getting into what promised to be an unstoppable piece of babble, "that, for example, a spider's breathing system is as evolved as it'll ever be in the current climate?"

"No, but-"

The Doctor interrupted her, warming up to his topic. On the one hand, Donna was grateful; at least it meant that he was no longer gloomy and thinking of this escaped 'comrade' as Severus put it, and she was genuinely pleased that he seemed to be regaining his equilibrium. But on the other…it was science. And she _hated_ science.

"…so you see, they can't actually grow to be bigger, because their breathing system wouldn't let them live – they'd die. _But_," the Doctor added, lifting his finger into the air, "if you go into a rainforest-"

"Or a hotel?" Donna asked, beginning to shiver in the night time air.

"You'll notice," the Doctor continued, as though he had never even heard Donna, "that they're considerably bigger."

"Just get inside!"

"Right, yes, sorry." The Doctor walked towards the front door and pushed it open. "And they're bigger," he continued, "because there's more oxygen and therefore they can afford to be."

Donna rolled her eyes. "Fascinating."

"I know!" the Doctor enthused, grinning from ear to ear. "And here's the really interesting part-"

"Oh God…" Donna walked resolutely up to the bored looking receptionist, who proceeded to chew gum and read her magazine, completely ignoring her. Donna noticed a picture of John White on the wall behind her, and almost rolled her eyes. She wasn't in the mood.

"-There was more oxygen in the atmosphere, you see, so the spiders were _huge_ – have you ever seen anything like Jurassic Park?"

"Three rooms please, for the night."

The receptionist chewed several times before languidly turning her eyes to Donna and looking her up and down. "Bit posh, ain't ya?"

"Just give me a room."

"We don't do singles."

"You're a _hotel_," Donna snapped, "of course you do!"

"We ain't got none left. There's a room with three beds, though."

Donna closed her eyes in a brief feeling of martyrdom before nodding. "Fine, yes, whatever. Does it have a shower?"

"It has a sink."

She resisted the urge to growl. "A toilet?"

"Yeah." The receptionist chewed. "That alright for you, Princess?"

"…because there was more oxygen. That's why in films with dinosaurs, you have giant bugs, as well. It's not just because of the 'spook factor', Severus-"

"Yes, it's fine."

" – maybe you should come and see it! Donna, do you think we should show Severus giant ants? It'd be like living in 'Them'!"

"I'm not going anywhere _near_ those things again!" Donna said forcefully. "And you'd better come here, you need to pay the bill for our room."

"Room?" Severus demanded. "Singular?"

"_Now_ do you want a better hotel?" Donna growled.

"Well said," Severus relented, smirking despite himself.

"Here's your keys," the receptionist said, smiling at the Doctor as he put his psychic paper back in his jacket pocket. "Have a nice night…luv."

The Doctor started to back away ever so slightly. "Yes…er, thanks. I think I will. Are the stairs-"

"Just there," the receptionist said, pointing. "I could show-"

"No, no, no, no, I think we'll find them," the Doctor interrupted hastily, plastering a smile onto his face. Donna had to cough to hide her laugh. "Thanks." He turned around, widening his eyes at Donna, who snickered.

They ascended the dark and slightly dubious staircase until they reached the very top floor of the small hotel, passing several questionable characters on the way. One had tried to make a none-too-subtle pass at Donna, but had instantly been sent scampering back into his room after one glare from Severus.

The room itself, when they finally reached it, was not overly impressive. In fact, from the state of the rest of the hotel, the door looked downright ominous. Donna stood staring at the door in the dingy light, noticing the flaking paint and dark patches on the carpet around it. From what, she didn't think she wanted to know.

"You're going to pay for this, Doctor!"

Even the Doctor was beginning to look slightly phased by now. "Well…" he coughed. "It's not…it's…" he waved his hand around limply for a bit, looking like a fish out of water. "There's a lot of character…"

Severus snorted. "A miserable quagmire of evasion, Doctor."

"Kant and James combined," the Doctor rattled off quickly.

Donna sniffed. "Let's just get inside."

The Doctor obediently unlocked the door and pushed, stepping into the room. Donna wrinkled her nose as a musty smell greeted them and stepped in after him, leaving Severus to go last.

What struck her instantly was the darkness of the room. There was one window, but the blinds were pulled shut, blocking out any lights from the streets below. A vague blob across the room moved quite quickly back towards her, and Donna remembered just before she embarrassed herself with a yell that it was the Doctor.

She snorted inwardly. _Honestly_. Too many adventures and too much dark.

"Anyone for light?"

"No," Severus said automatically. "From experience, a room is darkened for a reas-" he trailed off as the light was turned on anyway and the room came into stark relief.

The first thing that Donna noticed was the table. It was stood in the centre of the room, looking as though it could fall over at any moment, one leg at an impossible angle, as though something heavy had fallen on top of it. Donna tried not to look at the ominous stains beneath it that seemed to drip towards the door.

There were three beds, one next to another, lined up along one wall. The duvets looked lumpy and grey, as though they were once meant to be white. One of the pillows was half deflated, and several feathers on the floor next to that bed showed that it was ripped somewhere out of sight.

A door on the other side of the room seemed to lead to a small bathroom, though there was only a toilet and a sink, not even a bath. Donna sniffed and eyed it distastefully, letting out a shriek as she saw something four legged suddenly zip across the floor.

The Doctor came running in immediately, followed by Severus, who was patting his pockets and looking slightly confused.

"What is it? What's going on?"

"I _told_ you we needed a better hotel, Doctor, but did you listen to me? No! We have to go for the absolute worst in existence! And Severus, you can't use a wand anymore, stop looking for it!"

Severus scowled, but his expression became less confused and he obediently stood still. "Reflexes," he drawled, "are hard to ignore."

"It's not that bad…"

"It looks," Donna almost yelled, "like someone was murdered over the table! That's not _fine_, Doctor, and nowhere near it!"

"Alright, we'll find a new one in the morning, if you hate it so much."

"Yes, I _do_ hate it so much, as would any other sane person!" She looked at Severus. "Do you hate it?"

"Of course," Severus replied, smirking. "Though it does bring back memories."

Donna didn't even want to think what, precisely, these memories were, and knew that Severus would never accept her bringing it up. "So that's it, then," she said instead. "We're not staying here another night."

"The question is though," the Doctor muttered, glancing around the bathroom, "how are you going to survive this one?"

"By sleeping on top of the bed," Donna replied, moving back into the bedroom. "They probably haven't changed the sheets in a while and I really don't fancy seeing what's in there. And I'm going in the middle. If something _does_ happen, you're both much better for dealing with it. Or so you say."

She lay down on top of the grimy duvet, feeling the dirt sink into her clothes and through her skin, though that may have been her imagination. She sighed. Five minutes in here and she was already going mad. Who knew what would happen if she was forced to stay here for more than a night.

She closed her eyes and tried to picture a sunny beach – none of the ones she had gone to with the Doctor. They were amazing, she had to give credit where it was due, but every single one in some way, shape or form had almost been the death of her, and every time she pictured one of them, said almost-death followed, cackling on the heels of a good, relaxing daydream.

Eventually, she found herself settling onto golden, soft sand, feeling the small grains sinking between her toes as she wiggled them about. She grinned and looked up at the sky with her sunglasses on, enjoying the purple tint that followed. Plugging her Ipod into her ears, she sank further into her beach towel and let herself drift, calmed and soothed by the sound of waves and an atmosphere that was just the right temperature.

Dimly, just over the sound of her music, she could hear excited young children shrieking in the water, the slightly worried shouts of their parents that they should watch out for the next big wave. A distant crash, coming from said wave, accompanied the guitar of her song and she nodded slightly in time to the beat, sorely tempted to sing the lyrics but not quite relaxed enough to do so on a beach full of strangers.

Or at least, not yet.

She was just contemplating turning over so that she could toast her back when she felt something. A whisp of a movement, barely even noteworthy, but long association with the Doctor had taught her not to disregard anything, no matter how small.

It didn't mean she usually understood it though, she reminded herself, and flipped over onto her front, waiting to feel the movement again. She didn't.

Of course, it would help if the Doctor actually told her something that made sense, once in a while. Oh, he did eventually, after she had struggled and nodded along to scientific blathering, but it usually shaved off several minutes from their plan making session, and she was sure that things would go a lot smoother if he just learnt to speak proper, non-geeky English.

She rolled her eyes. Never going to happen. Maybe, she mused, she could force him to compile a dictionary; science-isms, or whatever he called them, against good, non-complicated English. It would be a lifesaver. Though it would also be a pain to have to flick through it all the time, especially when the Doctor talked at a hundred miles an hour. She wondered if she should time him, actually. Or maybe record him and make him listen to himself.

She could just picture it now; his expression as he fought to keep up with the nonsensical tangents thrown into a complicated scientific explanation. But there was only one flaw with that plan, unfortunately, and that was that the Doctor, being himself, was likely to understand himself.

So the best idea for retribution, then, would be for her to babble about shoes, shopping and the X-Factor. See if he understood that, she thought smugly.

Something brushed her arm, and she shrugged, trying to get rid of it.

Severus wouldn't either, actually. And he was just as bad, really – babbling about magic and then looking at her as though she was an idiot for not understanding it when really, it was partly his fault that she could never do it in the first place. And how was she supposed to understand it, anyway, if she had never done it? She was a practical learner.

She shrugged again, more insistently this time. She hated it when the sand got caught in the breeze and began brushing along her.

Though to be fair to Severus, he wasn't that bad anymore. He had his moments, but they were becoming fewer and far between, since he no longer had magic to talk about. Though she was sure he would find something to baffle her with, once the Doctor had finished teaching him about all the technology inside the TARDIS.

She snickered, smug. He wasn't much better at working it than she was, being so used to magic and simple solutions, but he was getting there, which was more than could be said for her. She still stared at the screen and drew up a blank face whenever the Doctor asked her what it meant. Severus at least took a guess. Even if it usually made the Doctor laugh before he explained it – super fast, of course – to him.

The movement came again, this time repeatedly. Donna sighed and sat up, wondering what it could possibly be. The sand beneath her felt odd, she realised as she reached up to take off her sunglasses…which weren't there.

Groaning as the dim and depressing hotel room once again greeted her, Donna sleepily looked down at her arm, hoping to solve the mystery once and for all.

And came face to face with a large, disgusting looking bug. She blinked. _Several_ large and disgusting looking bugs.

She flicked them off her arm and was about to lie down again when she felt something tickling her feet. Swallowing, and knowing that it was not a good idea but that it was probably necessary, Donna crawled to the end of the bed and lifted up the duvet.

And shrieked, jumping into the air and blindly into the bed next to her, suddenly very, _very_ glad that she had opted not to sleep inside the bed itself.

The occupant of the bed she had jumped onto let out a muffled, startled shout and sat up, almost head butting her, and had her pinned to the bottom of the bed within seconds. Donna gasped as long, thin fingers dug into her shoulder, pressing her further and further into the hard, lumpy hotel mattress.

"Get off, get off!" Donna yelled, over and over again. "Stop it, you idiot – you're _hurting_ me!"

Light flooded the room, blinding Donna and causing her to let out a surprised yell once again as she tried to hide her eyes, but found her arm pinned to the bed. Mercifully, the grip loosened at last and Donna sat up, blinking, to find a very surprised and dishevelled Severus, who looked slightly embarrassed at having attacked her.

The Doctor stood across the room, looking perfectly alert and more than a little bit confused to find Donna lying sprawled across the end of Severus' bed. Donna jumped to a standing position immediately, glaring down at Severus.

"Don't you _ever_ do that again! You scared the life out of me – do you want me to have a heart attack?"

Severus sputtered. "_You_ jumped onto my bed in the middle of the night!" He too climbed to a standing position, looking annoyed at his lost night of sleep and her accusations. "As lovely as the idea is," he sneered, "I could hardly just let it happen! You could have been anybody!"

"Yes, but I was _yelling_! What attacker in the middle of the night _yells_ for you to let them go?"

"I have met plenty!" Severus retorted.

Donna scoffed. "And who would be stupid enough-"

"The Death Eaters," Severus snapped. "I have been on enough raids with them to know that they all form one collective brain cell at the most!"

"Yes, well – stop laughing, Space Man!"

"Why – just, no…_mad_…" The Doctor shook his head, gasping, before sinking down onto Donna's bed. Donna stood back and watched, waiting to see how long it would take for him to notice.

"Why did you jump onto me?" Severus demanded, clearly annoyed that she was now ignoring him.

"There were insects in my bed," she muttered to him.

"The bed that the Doctor-"

"Exactly."

Severus smiled slowly, the look calculating. "You should have been in Slytherin."

"I have my moments, but I prefer Gryffindor," she shot back.

"They all do. Except the Slytherins."

"There's a reason for that."

The Doctor yelped and leapt into the air, all laughter suddenly disappearing. "What?" he looked thoroughly shocked as he stared at the bed before him and the insects crawling around on it. "What?"

"_That_ was why I jumped and shrieked," Donna explained. "There are insects on the bed."

"_What_?"

"Doctor, the concept is perfectly simple," Severus drawled. "You see, insects have many legs and a small body, meaning they can crawl from Merlin knows where into rooms where it would be the most inconvenient for them to remain. And, of course, they remain. What you have discovered seems to be a settlement."

He moved closer to the bed, raised an eyebrow, and added, "Or a metropolis."

"Right, ok, we can't stay here."

"Well we can't go wandering around at night!" Donna countered, gesturing the small window. "We'd get lost!"

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair, staring at his bed. "In that case, we should probably go back to bed."

"Bed?" Donna demanded, ignoring the small puff of breath from behind her that told her that Severus was struggling not to laugh outright. "I'm not going back to _that_!"

"Help me catch them then," the Doctor said, already kneeling by the bed and gathering a crowd of insects into his hands.

"You've got to be joking!"

"Oh, come on, Donna, they're not hard to catch." He walked over to her and stuck his hand under her nose, opening it to reveal loads of insects threatening to run down his sleeve. "See?"

"Get that away from me!" She batted his hand away, sending some insects flying across the room. "I'm not going anywhere near any insects!"

"Then you have no other option," Severus said, with a suspiciously straight face. "You must use another bed."

Donna's eyes widened. "No – wait… I'm not sharing a bed with _either_ of you, Severus, and that's final!"

"You would sleep standing up?"

"Sleep in my bed, Donna," the Doctor offered. "It's fine; I wasn't asleep anyway."

"You weren't asleep?"

He shook his head. "I was too busy thinking about our situation. And Time Lords don't need as much sleep as humans," he added. "I should be fine."

Donna grumbled, gratefully making her way over to his bed and sinking down on it. "Is there anything you Time Lords are worse at than us humans?"

The Doctor pondered that for a moment. "Musicals," he said, finally. "We can't do a decent musical."

"Yes," Severus said slowly, "but if this is based upon your music taste, then I am afraid I cannot believe you."

"What's wrong with my music taste?"

"You liked 'Vote John White'," Severus replied simply, as though that explained everything.

"Of course I did! It was catchy!"

"Luckily insanity isn't," Donna muttered.

The Doctor huffed out a breath. "You're rubbing off on her, you know, Severus. She was already bad enough – now you've turned her into an actual Grinch!"

"Oh shut up, Space Man, I want to go back to my beach."

She heard confused mutterings at that, but tuned it out as she let herself sink into oblivion once more, this time a dream thankfully not plagued by elusive touches of the insect variety.


	5. Prison

**5. Prison.**

"No, we're not going shopping!" The Doctor exclaimed, walking resolutely through the streets, though Donna suspected that he had no idea where he was going.

"Why not? Doctor, we need to! We stink, we have no clothes – we have to do _something_ about it!"

"We also have to do something about whatever is going on here," the Doctor replied, stopping and examining yet another poster on a shop window.

"But we don't even know what's happening!"

"I have an idea."

"So tell me, you prune!" Donna shouted, getting really annoyed now.

"Donna, keep your voice down-"

"No! I'm not going to keep it down, Doctor, until you tell me what's going on! I'm fed up of being left in the dark every single time we run into something! I know it's something to do with that Saxon man," she added, seeing him flinch at the name, "but I don't know what!"

"The camera-" Severus began, before he was interrupted.

"I think you do this on purpose!" Donna all but yelled. "You enjoy looking clever, don't you! You deliberately keep me in the dark so you get to be the knight in shining armour! Well not this time, sunshine – I'm not being the damsel in distress again!"

"Damsel…knights – Donna, what are you talking about?"

"You know damn well what I'm talking about," she snapped, "since you've planned it all!"

"The camera is focused on us," Severus said loudly, looking irritated with his two companions.

Donna blinked, confused. "What camera?"

Severus nodded at a security camera. "That one. I suggest we move. Now."

"Too late," the Doctor muttered.

Donna span around, looking in the Doctor's field of sight, and just barely stopped herself from spewing a rant that would have made Severus proud. Policemen were walking up to them, hands covering what she knew to be guns attached to their belts, but thankfully not yet using them. Bystanders were forming a crowd, everyone wearing rapt expressions as they watched the drama unfold before them.

"Come with us, please," the head of the policemen said when he reached shouting distance.

"You've got the wrong-"

The head lifted his gun, and all of his officers did likewise. "Come with us, sir. I will not tell you again!"

The Doctor slowly raised his hands and Donna did likewise, the position uncomfortably familiar. Why did she always get arrested these days?

"Right, ok, but-"

"No arguments. Just come quietly, and no one gets hurt!"

Donna began inching forwards, the Doctor and Severus by her side. She staggered slightly in her heels and saw one of the officers give her a leering glance. She glared at him before dismissing him completely, focussing instead on the difficult climb into the back of a police car, almost losing her balance with her hands still raised in the air.

When all three travellers were squashed into the back, the head of the team climbed behind the wheel, his assistant sitting next to him and watching them relentlessly for any signs of rebellion. Donna glanced to her left, and saw that Severus and the Doctor were sat completely still, neither giving the smallest sign that they were planning anything.

Donna sat back and sighed, preparing herself for being arrested without escaping. She stared out of the window at the streets and buildings flying by, watching the busy inhabitants of London with envy. What she wouldn't give to be out there instead of in a police car.

She straightened as a sudden thought occurred to her. She might finally be about to find out what was going on.

She leaned forwards and went to poke the man in charge in the shoulder, but had a gun trained on her faster than she could blink. She held her hands palm up, giving a small smile. "It's alright, I wasn't going to do anything, only poke him."

"Sit back in your seat."

"I just had a question-"

"Remain silent, please."

Donna scoffed. "Don't I have the right to know what I'm being charged with?" she demanded. "None of us know what's going on!"

"Any questions will be answered at the police station," the police officer replied, still with his gun trained on her, though he was slowly beginning to lower it now.

Donna, realising she was getting nowhere, sat back and sighed, resuming her vigil at the window. The minutes passed like a blur and before she could even truly realise what was happening, she had been told to put her fingers in ink, had her pockets emptied and was herded into a joint cell with Severus while the Doctor was escorted elsewhere.

"Let us out!" Donna yelled, pounding her fists against the door. "You can't just lock us up – you're supposed to read us our rights! What about our _rights_? And where are you taking him – bring him back here!"

The guards carried on walking, escorting the Doctor between them despite Donna's protests.

"Doctor!"

"It's alright!" the Doctor called back, even as they prodded him to keep walking down the corridor and away from her, "I'll find out what's going on!"

The officers succeeded at last in getting him out the door and shut it behind them with a clang. Donna retreated from the barred door of their cell and turned to face the other occupant, trying to ignore the cramped conditions that reminded her too much of the hotel.

"So much for reading us our rights."

Severus lowered himself down onto one of the beds, ignoring the creaking of wood that had put up with too many years of work. "This is no ordinary arrest. Clearly, they think that we are dangerous, or are under orders not to reveal anything if, of course, they even know why they are arresting us."

"Of course they know! How can they arrest us if they don't?"

"Bribes," Severus drawled, "direct orders, blackmail…the list is endless. There were no Wanted posters after all."

"You have a really bleak view of everything, did you know that?"

"Yes."

She sighed and sat on the other bed, watching as he shifted to face her. "So now what?"

"There is little we can do apart from wait."

"Wonderful. You do realise whenever they say that in films the people either get murdered or into even more trouble?"

"Naturally," Severus smirked.

"Which is why you say it."

"Of course."

"Great. I'm stuck in a cell with someone who has a horrible sense of humour," she said, though not unkindly. "We're going to drive each other mad."

"Hell is other people, after all." Severus sighed and leaned back against the wall, looking annoyed at being so helpless.

"I wonder what they're doing with him."

Severus nodded stiffly, his expression guarded, and didn't reply. Instead, he got up and began prowling the room, knocking on the stone and trying to twist the bars. From his frustrated growl several minutes later, he had concluded that it was impossible to break out. He threw himself back onto the bed, face twisted into a frightening expression that Donna had only seen a handful of times.

"They never tire of oppressing others, do they?" He muttered bleakly several minutes later, that ugly expression still lingering in his eyes even though it was mostly gone from his face.

Donna nodded, not sure she liked where this was going. "That's governments for you."

Severus snorted but, to her surprise, simply lay on his back and put his arm over his face. He didn't move for a long time. Donna, left to her own devices, tried not to imagine what was happening to the Doctor at that very moment.

Restless, she got up and paced the room, trying to ignore the images that her ever over-active imagination had managed to conjure. At each one, she flinched, and told herself that it would never happen, that this was the government. But every time she did, Severus' eyes came back to the front of her mind and she shuddered unconsciously.

After what seemed like days later, the door scraped open and a guard walked in, his gun immediately trained on the two of them. "Follow me," he ordered them.

"Wait a minute!" Donna protested, not budging an inch, "What have you done with the Doctor?"

"Just come with me."

"So answer the question, then!"

Severus was by her side in an instant, his face hard as he looked the guard right in the eyes. "Is he harmed?"

The guard, seeming to realise that things would go much more quickly for him if he told them a bit of information, shook his head. "He's still in the debriefing room. I'm taking you there."

"If that's what you want to call it," Donna snapped. She couldn't help but flinch, however, as the gun made a jerking movement out the door. "Alright, alright, we're coming."

They followed the guard through a maze of corridors, every single one of them looking the same to her eye. She tried not to react as they passed several cells along the way, the occupants yelling variations of the same thing at the guard, who didn't even flinch. Finally, they reached what seemed to be the other side of the building, where they were shown into a room with light that seemed piercing after the dingy nature of the cell they had been in. Blinking, Donna made her way over to the table in the middle of the room and sat down next to the Doctor gratefully.

"Still in one piece I see."

"Donna," the Doctor said quietly, "you shouldn't have worried."

"So who is it, then?" She asked, rather than argue with him about interrogation methods. "Why are we here?"

"You're here," a booming voice announced, causing Donna to look up, "because we have reason to believe that you know what's going on."

The voice belonged to a bulky man dressed in a non-descript suit. His face was devoid of expression to the point of being inhuman, and he moved sparingly. In fact, Donna thought, he looked exactly as she would picture a spy... or rather, he would have, if he didn't look so out of shape.

"Who are you, then?" Donna demanded, looking him up and down with deliberate slowness.

"I'm from The Unified Intelligent Task Force. My name is Alan Blunt-"

"Hang on." Donna put her finger up, as she always did when emphasising a point. "_Blunt_? Just how many Horowitz stories have you been reading, sunshine?"

"Not that Blunt," the man all but snapped, before he composed himself once more.

"He hears that a lot," the Doctor put in. "I also pointed it out - it's an extraordinary coincidence, actually, that he has the same surname - though sadly not quite the same job - as the character."

"As we discussed at length during our interview," Blunt pointed out tightly. "I would rather not do so again."

"Right, sorry." Though, to Donna's ears, the Doctor did not sound very sorry at all.

"You are a spy?" Severus asked.

"No," Blunt replied. "I am, however, in charge of the investigation into John White's electoral campaign. There is an ominous lack of information regarding the man, and even less on his origins."

"Well, what's that got to do with us?" Donna demanded.

"You know him."

"No I don't!" Donna protested, annoyed. "If that's all you dragged us down here for-"

"I was not talking to you," Blunt interrupted.

"I told you," the Doctor said, "I can't tell you much about him. It would violate my people's laws."

"Your people are gone."

"Wait...Doctor, how does he know about you?"

The Doctor glanced at her. "Oh...most secret services on Earth know about me - and quite a few other planets' secret services, come to think of it - because I get involved in so much. Been arrested by them a few times as well, actually, because they didn't recognise my new incarcanations. Took me ages to convince them I was who I said I was here, as well."

"How did you know that we have information on White?" Severus asked slowly.

"You were seen questioning students in Durham, staring at pictures of him but, more importantly, someone saw your little spaceship land."

"TARDIS," the Doctor muttered. "I told you - not spaceship, TARDIS. And another thing, if you saw me land why did you interrogate me?"

"You said so yourself, Doctor, this face is as of yet unrecorded on our files and I had to be sure. Management would have had my head if I had made a mistake."

"I think you just enjoy Good Cop Bad Cop."

Blunt did not deign to answer that. "The fact of the matter is, we don't know much about this White fellow, and that is, of course, worrying. He could be planning anything - his policies certainly aren't very specific, yet he seems to be gaining popularity at an alarming rate. But that is not the only thing that we discovered when researching him."

"White is just a figurehead."

"Correct..." Blunt looked at a momentary loss for several moments.

"Snape," Severus supplied.

"Yes..." Blunt gave Severus a funny look, at that, "he is just a figurehead. And the question remains; why his party needs him to be so."

"Do you have any theories?" Severus asked.

"One. That he is gathering as much support as possible so that whoever is controlling him can gain total control of the country and impliment his real plans."

"You just don't know who's controlling him." The Doctor supplied.

"No, we don't."

"But you think I do."

"According to our records, you normally do, yes."

"Well you're wrong there," the Doctor said, "because I don't. And I don't know why, either."

"But you _will_ help us."

"Why?" The Doctor demanded, getting up and beginning to pace, his voice rising in pitch. "Why do you think that, after being abducted, threatened and interrogated by you, that I'll help you? You stole my TARDIS!"

Now Blunt looked slightly confused. "We did no such thing."

"You just said that one of your people saw us land!"

"Yes, but they reported back to us immediately," Blunt countered. "We ordered others in the area to look out for you. We have no use for your spaceship, only who is inside."

"Ah."

"So the real question," Donna put forward, "is who stole the TARDIS?"

The Doctor looked like he was trying very hard not to go on a rampage. "He's got the TARDIS."

"Who?"

The Doctor struggled for a minute before he seemed to give in. "The person I suspect of controlling White-"

"You said you knew nothing!"

"I said I knew nothing for _sure_, not that I had no guesses! I haven't seen him yet, heard from him...it's very odd. But now he's got my TARDIS..." he ran his hands through his hair. "If he's going to do what he usually does we're all in very, very big trouble. The last time he had it...well, no one remembers it, but it was very close."

"So what do we do, then?" Donna demanded.

"The only thing we can do," the Doctor said. "And I'd do it if I could but I can't - and neither can you, Donna, because you're too well known."

"I'm a _temp_ from Chiswick!"

"Yes, but other worlds know that you've been travelling with me, and they occasionally monitor Earth to make sure that it doesn't get too out of control - bit peeping tom, but they do. If you were to do what I've got in mind, you could be in a lot of trouble. And England has yet to trust a woman in the role after..well, Thatcher."

"I thought she was good?"

"She was in some ways, Donna, yes, but have you heard people talk of her? A lot of them still hate her. It'd be a bad idea. Anyway, I have a better, much more commercial and popular person in mind."

"So who..." she trailed off, her eyes widening. "You can't be serious!"

"No, not Sirius," the Doctor quipped, in a joke so bad that Donna actually grimaced, "Snape."

Severus looked suddenly as though he wanted to run out of the room. "No," he said flatly.

The Doctor bounded over to him. "Oh yes. You, Severus Snape, are going to run for Prime Minister!"

"No."

"We have no other candidates," Blunt pointed out. "At this point, the other parties are considerably less popular. We need to introduce a new factor, before he gains more popularity, and we need someone as interesting as he is." He looked Severus up and down. "Needless to say, your rather...fictional look, shall we say, will most likely be a hit."

"And if I refuse?" Severus asked tightly.

"Then England will be in trouble," the Doctor said gravely. "And not just any old trouble - very, _very_ big trouble, that'll soon spread to the rest of the world before encompassing the entire universe."

"So no pressure," Donna added.

Severus breathed out heavily through his nose. "I will do what I must."

The Doctor grinned. "Brilliant! You know, I never thought I'd see this happen - Severus Snape, running for Prime Minister!"

"He cannot use that name, of course," Blunt interjected. "He'd be sued for copyright before he even did a speech. He will need an alias."

The Doctor nodded thoughtfully. "Elphias Doge...no, hang on, that's an actual character...hmm...well, we can think of that in a minute. But right now, we need to sort out what we'll be doing. Do you have any proper offices?" He asked Blunt.

Blunt nodded. "Follow me."

They trooped out of the room, Donna suppressing a smirk as Severus all but slammed the door behind them, his mouth turned down in a grimace so deep it was surprising that it was physically possible. Receiving a glare, she averted her gaze quickly, and tried not to laugh.


	6. Campaigns

**Author's Note:** Ok, firstly I would like to apologise for not updating in a while, but my Muse completely died and is resisting being brought back to life, unfortunately. I do, however, have something crazy as always in store, so please keep reading! Apologies again, and thanks as always to 10Whovian, who is still doing a great job of proofreading this story.

** Campaigns.**

"So," the Doctor chirped as Blunt led them into a boring, run-of-the-mill office in the police station, "should we cut your hair, Severus, or have you run for Prime Minister as you are?"

Donna noticed with some amusement that Severus' reply came through gritted teeth. "Either way, it will be obvious who I am."

"Well, probably," the Doctor conceded. "But think of it this way – you're a fictional man, Severus. You are, quite literally, pen, paper and imagination come to life and, since the Harry Potter series has just ended on the big screen, you'll be very popular! It may work in our favour."

"Why?"

"People think you're dead!" the Doctor exclaimed cheerfully. "If someone turns up looking exactly like the book description of Severus Snape – as you do-"

"Obviously," Severus drawled.

"-and announces that they want to run for the elections, a lot of Harry Potter fans are going to vote for you!"

Donna snorted, the enormity of it hitting her all at once. "You want Harry Potter fans to take over the country?"

"No, I want them to save it – slight difference there, Donna."

"They'd still elect someone who controls everything," Donna shot back. "It's the same thing, isn't it?"

"Yes, well…that's not important." Donna smirked as the Doctor changed topic, knowing that she had won. "What _is_ important is his image."

"If you want the Potterheads to vote for him," Donna pointed out, "shouldn't he look the same?"

"But we could get him to cut his hair halfway through the campaign if things are going badly – that way, all Alan Rickman fans might be tempted."

"I am in the room," Severus snapped.

"Yes," Blunt interjected, making them all jump. They had forgotten he was there. "I have to say that this plan seems rather…lackadaisical."

"I'm not using guns," the Doctor said flatly.

"It would be much simpler to eliminate the ring leader," Blunt countered.

"No guns!"

There was a brief staring competition; the Doctor glaring fiercely at the much more impassive man across the room from him. Silence reigned supreme for several tense seconds that felt more like hours. Donna stood off to the side with Severus, waiting for the moment where conversation would begin once more, and hoping that the Doctor would win as always. She hated guns too.

"Very well," Blunt finally agreed with a tense nod of the head.

"Right, good," the Doctor said, before launching into a plan at a hundred miles per hour. "Right, now that's out of the way, I think we should formulate some policies. Number one," he announced, lifting up a finger and spinning around to look at everyone equally, "world peace."

"That's unachievable!" Blunt exclaimed.

"Exactly. Number two," the Doctor continued, despite Blunt opening his mouth to argue, "stabilising the economy. C…no…wait, three – sorry, can you all stand in a group together?"

Blunt looked nonplussed. "Why?"

"Because I'm spinning around to keep eye contact with you all and it's making me dizzy and forgetful, not to mention very rude. Right," he continued loudly when Blunt walked across the room to join Donna and Severus, "three; fair trade. Everyone loves fair chocolate. And four – everything else he stood for."

"And anything we can add to it," Donna added.

The Doctor nodded. "Exactly."

"Forgive me," Blunt said, "but would that not make us appear ridiculous? We'd be supporting policies that are widely renowned for never being achieved!"

"Yes, but the fact that we're going to try makes all the difference in the run up to elections, and we've got no time to lose," the Doctor pointed out. "You're forgetting that the majority of voters really know very little of politics and vote for whoever has the best public image. Or who will have the most impressive historical impact. It varies from person to person. But the point is," he emphasised, speaking so fast that Donna could barely keep up with what he was saying, "that only the experts will see through it, and if they see through us, they've seen through White – but he's still winning by miles, isn't he?"

"Yes," Blunt replied, "he is. But it's still risky."

"Risky, but necessary," the Doctor said. "So," he clapped his hands together, grinning, "let's get started, then! Oh, I love a good campaign!"

Severus scowled. "I have never held a great love for politics."

"No, but you can act," Donna pointed out.

Severus glared at her, realising she had destroyed his only available escape route. "Yes…thank you."

"No problem."

"So now we're all ready, allons-y!"

"Must you always speak French?" Severus asked.

"Pourquoi pas? Je l'adore!" *

"Oh, Merlin," Severus swore.

"Now you've done it, Plant Man – he'll be babbling away like that for hours!"

oOo

"So," the Doctor said, several hours later, "we've got the posters designed. What next – ah! A recorded speech! I'll start writing one. Severus…start practicing being diplomatic."

Predictably, Severus bristled immediately. "I can be diplomatic – more so than you can, Doctor. _I_ do not babble incessantly."

"Good, good," the Doctor said absently, already typing away on a laptop so fast that his fingers were almost a blur, "but it needs some work."

Severus rolled his eyes. "And these posters," he muttered to Donna, "are hardly sophisticated." He held one out for her to see.

Donna took it and studied it for a moment. The Doctor had taken a photograph of Severus with the closest thing he would ever get to a smile (a slight, almost smirking upturning of the lips, but it was all they were going to get) and put it on a purple background with small, ridiculously cartoon-y looking silver stars in the background. Severus' arms were crossed and he was holding a fake wand that they had managed to find from a nearby fancy dress shop – he was pointing it at a one pound note, which was captured in a yellow, magical glow. His dark, lanky as ever hair hung in his face, giving him a mysterious but powerful look as he stared out of the poster, and the dark colour of his eyes was emphasised by the black business suit that had been provided by UNIT.

The caption underneath said "Vote Tobias Wellesley – he'll be a magical leader."

Donna snorted. "Well…Potter fans will love it…"

"It does nothing for my dignity," Severus snarled.

"You're going to be a politician – you're not supposed to have any!" Donna quipped. Severus glared at her again. "Oh, come on, you know I'm only joking. All you have to do is win the election. You don't have to _stay_ Prime Minister!"

Severus raised an eyebrow. "And how do you propose that I escape from my responsibilities if I am, by some miracle, elected?"

Donna shrugged. "The TARDIS, once we get it back."

Severus rolled his eyes. "We do not know where it is."

"Just when did you become the pessimist who gave up before he began?" Donna demanded. "Have we swapped places or something?"

Severus smirked. "I simply do not have much faith in the government to help us retrieve the TARDIS."

"Finished!" The Doctor interrupted, bounding from his chair and over to the printer.

Severus raised an eyebrow. "Hopefully he has not included any of his many tangents or complicated technical language."

"I wouldn't be too hopeful."

The door to the office opened and Blunt slipped in, observing the scene. "How is it progressing?"

"Perhaps we should move to a more secure location," Severus suggested, since the Doctor was occupied with reading through an ominously long script.

Blunt shook his head. "We cannot risk moving; we do not want our plan or your presence to be discovered before we are ready."

"Any chance of more help?" Donna asked.

"I already have the most trusted men on the Force working for us," Blunt explained. "We need as much of the element of surprise as we can get, or we risk our opponents being able to quickly counter our appearance in the campaigns. The more people we tell the more we risk it happening."

"It's like Catch 22 in here," Donna moaned.

Blunt raised an eyebrow. "I am giving you all the help I can."

The Doctor bounded over to Severus and handed him several papers with a flourish. "Try reading this out in your Prime Minister persona, Severus."

Severus grabbed the paper, looking supremely unenthusiastic. He began scanning the speech and sneered at a few of the words. "I enthusiastically look forward to the implementation of this policy?"

The Doctor nodded. "It's enthusiastic!"

"It is ridiculous. It sounds nothing like me."

"It's not meant to," the Doctor said. "You need to be…well…don't take this the wrong way, but you need to be extremely popular."

Donna's mouth dropped open as she turned to Severus to see his reaction. _Uh oh_.

"Popularity cannot be achieved through sarcasm and wit?" Severus demanded in a voice that was deceptively quiet.

"But…well…hmm," the Doctor ran a hand through his hair, looking uncannily like a trapped rabbit. "Uh-"

"If people are to vote for me," Severus continued firmly, "because of what I look like, why should I not have elements of the 'character' in my speech? I can hardly stand before a nation, looking like one person and speaking like you." He smirked. "The nation would laugh."

Now it was the Doctor's turn to sound insulted. "Right, fine. How about 'This sorry country will be in much better shape once I am in charge'?"

"Needs a bit of work," Donna muttered. "Sounds too much like Blackadder at the moment."

Severus nodded. "I agree."

"Right," the Doctor muttered, looking slightly annoyed, "so we're going for insulting but diplomatic enough to be voted for." He bounded back to the laptop and started typing crazily again.

"Well, look at it this way," Donna said, trying to cheer Severus up, "at least the speech wasn't in French."

oOo

A few hours later, and Severus was beginning to look seriously irritated from the sheer amount of times that he had been asked to practice the speech. The Doctor had found something wrong with every performance that he had given so far, saying that Severus was too 'inexperienced in the world of politics' – something that Severus seemed not to be bothered by.

Donna, meanwhile, had watched in confusion. After reading the first few books and hearing talk from her friends, she had thought that Severus would have snatched at any chance to prove himself to the world, to gain the fame that he seemed to envy Harry for having. Yet what she saw here was the complete opposite. Perhaps, she reflected, he had simply wanted to be recognised for the sacrifices he had already made, rather than being despised, and was unlikely to want to do it all again now that he had finally had the chance to live a normal (well, normal-ish in the TARDIS) life.

And the Doctor…he was still sniffing the air at random moments, his eyes searching the room, as though he was looking for something but couldn't find it. Donna was beginning to wonder whether what Severus had suggested did indeed carry some weight – was he simply so used to the evil plans that his mind was concocting signs that they were happening again? She honestly didn't know. Human psychology was hard enough, but Time Lords…it was a wonder that any of them were sane, she thought, after having seen some of the Doctor's more random moments.

"Ok!" The Doctor's voice jerked Donna out of her reverie and she found herself once more in the grotty police office, slumped in a chair by the sole desk in the room. "I think we're ready to record the speech!"

"Are you sure he's ready?" Donna asked.

"He's the best he'll ever get," the Doctor said bluntly.

Severus scowled. "Let's just film it," he snapped, "before I give in to the temptation to tear up this script."

"Speech," the Doctor corrected quietly. Severus glared at him. "Alright then, let's go. Severus Snape," he announced loudly, all but dragging the reluctant other man to the door, "you're about to fix history!"

A/N: The French marked with a * means "why not, I love it!"


	7. Richard Stephenson

**7. Richard Stephenson.**

"Well," the Doctor exclaimed as Severus finished recording his speech, "that went well."

Severus scowled. "I am unused to having Muggle cameras aimed at my face."

"Yes…you did look a bit like a trapped rabbit," the Doctor added. "Still, it can't be helped."

"It was quite endearing, actually," Donna said, watching as Severus' glare increased. "I don't think anyone would have seen an embarrassed Severus Snape before."

"Nor will they see it again."

"So, what now?" Donna asked the Doctor.

"Now, we wait. Although…if we do win, we're not going to be able to stay here and keep Severus as Prime Minister. It'd be interfering with history." He stared around the studio for a moment, clearly thinking over the options. "We're going to have to find Richard Stephenson."

"Who?"

"The next Prime Minister, Donna. We need him to be a member of our party if we want him to succeed in becoming the next leader."

"And what if we don't win?"

"We'll win."

Donna sighed. "Yes, alright, we'll win. But what if we don't?"

The Doctor's face closed off. "We may be forced to find the man behind everything and, well…get rid of him and his partners."

Severus raised an eyebrow. "Would that not create a power vacuum?"

"A bit, yes," the Doctor replied dryly. "Which is why we have to win in the first place. We're going to need all the help we can get. Advertising, novelty shirts, balloons…a record? Maybe even a short sketch."

"A short sketch?" Donna snorted. "Of what?"

"I don't know, something memorable."

Severus scowled even more. "Fantastic. Now the only task left to us is finding one of the Two Ronnies."

Donna and the Doctor both stared at him. Severus raised an eyebrow.

"I have a certain familiarity with the Muggle world, yes. There is no need to be surprised – you proclaim after all to know me _so well_."

Donna opened her mouth to say something scathing, but reconsidered and shut it again as she saw Blunt walking purposefully towards them through the small gathering of television crew. His usually grim countenance had been slightly brightened by the tiniest of tiny smiles, and there was a slight spring in his step. He drew to a stop in front of them and raised his eyebrow, lips twitching.

"Well, I've had men working almost constantly since you got here, but we finally managed to submit our information to the Electoral Commission. We told them it was urgent and used a little influence – we are now an official party."

"We?" Severus asked, raising his eyebrow as he looked Blunt up and down.

Blunt's good humour evaporated. "Yes. You need more than three members, don't you, if you want it to succeed. I am going to help provide financial support."

"Do you have clearance for that?" The Doctor asked.

"I informed my superior, yes, but some of it has to come out of my own savings. Running a campaign is very expensive business."

Donna blew out her breath in sympathy, while the Doctor looked at Blunt thoughtfully. "Do you really love your country that much?" he asked.

"Someone has to save it, Doctor, and since you're a penniless drifter, I thought it should be me."

"How did you even have enough money to do that?" Donna asked.

"A lot of years of hard work, rewards for saving the country many times when I was in the field, and my wife has contributed."

"That was nice of her," the Doctor commented, a bit surprised.

"She doesn't know yet."

"Then she will not be pleased with you," Severus smirked. Blunt's face had by now become the statuesque visage that they had all come to know. He nodded tersely.

"Right," the Doctor coughed awkwardly, "so now that we're an official political party, we need to find Richard Stephenson."

Blunt turned to look at the Doctor, a look of dazed confusion registering on his face for a moment before he wiped it away in a movement that reminded Donna of Severus. "Who?"

"Oh, blimey, this is going to be much more difficult than I originally thought," the Doctor muttered, running his hands through his hair. "You know, he's a politician? He might not be a well known one, but he does exist."

"I have never heard of him."

"Yeah, but you haven't heard of everybody, have you?" Donna pointed out. "Just because you don't know him doesn't mean he isn't out there."

"Is there a record centre somewhere?" The Doctor asked. "Or an online database of some sort for all citizens in England?"

Blunt nodded. "Back at the station," he said shortly.

"Right, good. Let's go there, then."

"Hang on," Donna asked as they all began to walk away, "is this all we have to do to make a broadcast?"

"Yup," the Doctor said cheerfully. "They'll broadcast it on Monday evening, I think, so Severus should be mobbed in the street by Tuesday morning, though we're still hoping it will be a good sort of mobbed."

Blunt, clearly no longer interested in their conversation, walked ahead and whipped out a small mobile phone.

"Because I remember once," the Doctor continued, "hearing about a politician from the thirty first century on Earth, who thought he had done a really good broadcast – all the bells and whistles, everything – but the next day had to go to the supermarket with an armed bodyguard. He never did get all of his groceries before they had to practically carry him out of the shop."

There was a brief, awkward silence before Severus cleared his throat. "Very comforting, Doctor."

Blunt slowed his pace and came to walk beside them, his mobile now back in his pocket. "I have asked for a car. It should be here in ten minutes."

They walked in silence to the reception area, where they sat down. Donna sat back and watched people walk by with interest, imagining – as she sometimes did when she was bored or worried – a backstory to each person. For a moment, she forgot about the worry of the country, this Saxon man, and the Doctor's strange behaviour. For a moment, she was simply Donna Noble as she used to be, watching people pass – people who lead lives every bit as interesting, hectic and sometimes plain worrying as hers now – just without the aliens, she thought with a snort.

Then the sound of a car horn shattered the illusion and she pulled herself to her feet like everyone else, trying not to think about what would happen if they did lose. They all clambered into the police car, silence still reigning between them as everyone was lost in their own thoughts and fears.

oOo

Hours of stressful searching later, Blunt was behind the wheel of his own car, weaving in and out of traffic as fast as he could without looking suspicious. They had decided not to take a police car on the grounds that the opposition might notice. It was Severus' idea, of course – no one else was paranoid enough to come up with it – but Donna didn't really mind. If she blocked her ears and squinted for a bit, it almost felt like an ordinary car ride.

It hadn't been easy to find this Richard Stephenson, that was for sure. And when they had finally found his file, it was the most disappointingly slim one that could ever have been imagined. He wasn't a minor celebrity, a businessman with enough money to keep his name a secret, or even a minor politician. He wasn't even a repeat offender. He was the most non-descript man that they could have expected, and Donna was beginning to wonder how this entire plan was going to work. Did the man even know anything about politics?

She glanced out the window, trying not to let her unease show. They were in a fairly poor neighbourhood; the houses were shabby, a few with windows boarded up. They drove past a park where mothers were talking, their children running around the playground shrieking. A man walked past slowly, glancing innocently into the playground, but quickly changed his mind when he was fixed with a glare that could kill. All of the mothers had instantly turned towards him, and Donna watched in a mixture of amusement and sympathy as the poor man shrugged and increased his pace.

"Now…" the Doctor peered at the map, "we should be coming up to his house soon."

Donna leaned forwards and put her head between the two front seats. "Can I just butt in," she asked without really asking, going for it anyway, "why don't you have a Sat Nav?"

"No one really trusts them anymore," Blunt said tersely, his eyes fixed rigidly on the road and his jaw beginning to clench.

"Oh, of course," the Doctor said. "I remember that one."

"Would someone care to enlighten me?" Severus asked testily from the back.

"Bit of a long story," the Doctor said dismissively, "and not entirely relevant to this job, so I'll explain later*."

"But isn't it a bit inconvenient?" Donna asked, still poking her head between the seats. "I mean, what if you're chasing a burglar down a street you don't know and have to call for back up? Are you seriously going to have someone sitting in the passenger seat reading a map at high speed?"

"They managed in the days before such technology," Blunt replied vaguely. "We can manage now."

"Because I've always wondered," Donna ploughed on, "exactly how you used to do it in the old days. Did you used to have to carry travel bags around with you in case you were stuck with someone who got car sick?"

To her left, she could hear the Doctor suck in a sharp breath and she turned to glance at him suspiciously. "Are you laughing at me, Plant Man?"

"No! No, no, no, no…I was just…sneezing."

She narrowed her eyes at him deliberately, inwardly quite amused. "_Sneezing_?"

"Yup. Allergies, you know."

"You're a Time Lord, you don't get _allergies_," Donna scoffed. "What kind of an outer space policeman would you be if a criminal could just wave a cat in your face?"

The Doctor's lips were beginning to wobble. "Yes, well…exactly. That's the problem with it, Donna – very inconvenient stuff."

She flicked him on the shoulder. "You're such a prune."

"Next turning on the left," the Doctor informed in a serious voice. He turned around and grinned at Severus. "Can I ask you a random question, Severus?"

Severus regarded the Doctor warily. "If you absolutely must."

"What would you think of voicing a Sat Nav for our campaign?"

Severus scowled. "If a… Sat Nav, as you call it, is what I would assume it to be, I do not believe that it would be in our best interests. As Blunt said, the majority of the population no longer trusts them. It would be fruitless to try."

The Doctor made a 'hmph' sound of disappointment. "Just a thought. It's something I've always wanted to hear – a Severus Snape Sat Nav. Lovely alliteration."

Donna snorted. "Turn left, dunderhead."

"I can teach you how to traverse the highways," the Doctor said in a passable imitation of Severus, "and beware the senses. It'd be brilliant! Oh, and next right."

Blunt glanced at the Doctor in annoyance before quickly indicating and yanking the steering wheel to the right. The car careered into the next turning, and someone hooted. "Give me a little notice, next time," he grumbled. "I don't want to crash on duty."

"Get used to it," Severus advised sourly. "He is as organised as entropy."

"That house there," the Doctor said, before turning around to glance at Severus with mild annoyance. "I _am_ organised!"

"Not really," Donna quipped, as the car screeched to a halt and Blunt had to reverse several meters. "If you were, we wouldn't have gone past the house, would we?"

The Doctor mysteriously failed to reply and Donna inwardly began to keep score. Donna: 1. Doctor: 0. The car drew to a halt at the side of the road and Blunt turned the engine off. Donna climbed out the car, wobbling precariously in her heels.

Severus steadied her, smirking. "It is such a tragedy that no woman at the police station matched your incredibly large feet." He raised an eyebrow. "You seem now to be condemned to a life of gymnastics."

"Yeah, well it's not my fault someone stole my shoes at the hotel, is it?" Donna snapped back, turning away from him to get a good look at the house in front of them.

It was quite old, that much was clear from the state of it. It was tastelessly painted; the yellow flaking all over the face of the house like sun-burnt skin. The red door stood out angrily, daring them to walk up and knock on it. Rubbish bins littered the area directly in front of the house, one of them knocked over, the rubbish spilling out and getting heartily attacked by a cat.

The Doctor looked it up and down briefly before shrugging and walking straight up to it. Blunt stayed in the car, looking bored with the entire procedure, though his continued glances towards the house betrayed his interest.

Severus helped Donna step over the rubbish bin and up to the front door. He was eying the house with an unfathomable expression, his eyes curiously blank. Donna thought back to his attitude before they had known him and took another look at his general appearance. The house, she concluded, was probably stirring up memories best left forgotten.

The Doctor rapped politely on the door then stepped back a step, sniffing (apparently unconsciously) and glancing around the street. The door yanked open and a tall, scruffy looking middle aged man was suddenly glancing warily at them.

"Yes?"

"Hello!" The Doctor said cheerily, flashing the man his brightest smile. "Richard Stephenson?"

The man tensed instantly as his eyes darted down the street, noticed Blunt in the car, then came back to rest on the Doctor in some alarm. "Who wants to know?" His voice was rough and now openly unfriendly, where before it had held a slight note of curiosity.

"I'm the Doctor." A hand stretched out, waiting to be shook, then fell back to the Doctor's side in a disappointed motion. "Can we come in?"

"Doctor who?"

Severus raised an eyebrow. "Interesting."

"What?"

Severus stared back at Stephenson, a slight smirk of triumph twisting his lips. "A conversation with an old friend," he explained, "has just become coherent. She knew more of Muggle entertainment than me," he added in a low voice to Donna.

"That explains the Two Ronnies, then."

"Muggles?" Stephenson barked, beginning to look slightly alarmed. Severus' face closed off – Stephenson had not been meant to hear.

"Yes, well," the Doctor said quickly. "Can we come in? We need to talk about something important."

"I'm not letting you into my house until I know who you are."

The Doctor showed him the psychic paper. "The Doctor. That's all you need to know. It's my…nickname."

"And the other two?"

"They're with me."

Stephenson looked dubious for a moment before finally nodding and standing aside to let them in. The inside of the house was slightly better than the outside, Donna reflected. It wasn't much to look at, but it was at least clean and well maintained.

The Doctor walked into the living room and sat down on the sofa. Severus hovered awkwardly before he joined him, and Donna sat between them. Stephenson glanced at them suspiciously, clearly put off by their lack of manners, before sitting in an armchair across from them.

"What's so important you can't tell me outside?"

"You're Richard Stephenson," the Doctor began, but the man interrupted.

"Yes, well done."

"…And you obviously have no idea just how special that is."

"Why," scoffed Stephenson, "should it be?"

"Extremely so, apparently," Severus drawled.

"Are you interested in politics?" The Doctor asked.

"I studied it at school. Fat lot of good that did me." He gestured around him. "A degree can't pay the bills if you can't use it."

"No job?" Donna asked, already knowing the answer.

Stephenson nodded. "Years at university, wasted."

"University? Well, it's getting better and better," the Doctor said cheerfully. "Tell me, what did you get?"

"Look, is there a point to this interrogation? Because if there isn't I'll have to ask you to leave."

"I'm getting there! Now," the Doctor continued, speaking slightly faster now, Stephenson's impatience rubbing off on him, "what did you get, and where did you go?"

"Oxford. First."

Donna sucked in a breath. "And how did you manage to _not_ get a job after that?"

"Life got in the way," Stephenson said. "My mother fell ill – this is her house…_was_ her house, rather. She died a week ago."

"I'm sorry," Donna murmured. Stephenson nodded at her.

"I had to look after her. I had no time for a job – had to live off her savings and the generosity of my family, helping her to do even the simplest things. But it was all pointless in the end."

The Doctor allowed a brief moment of respectful silence before clearing his throat and continuing. "Have you been following the elections?"

"Of course. It's a joke, if you ask me. Political songs?" He barked out a laugh. "It's ridiculous!"

"Yes…well, blame the students for that one," the Doctor said. "But you know that there's no major opposition?" Stephenson nodded. "What would you say if I told you that we have just introduced another candidate?"

"But that's pointless – they'd never win! White is just too far ahead, you'll be left in his dust!"

"Our candidate is a very fast talker. I'm sure he could catch up."

"Who is your candidate?"

Severus scowled. "Me."

Stephenson looked incredulous. "_You_? But…I've never even seen you before! Though actually, you do look familiar…"

"No," Severus snapped, "I do not."

"Forgive me, but isn't a candidate meant to have charisma?"

"On-screen, yes," the Doctor replied. "But away from the cameras, they're just ordinary people."

"Well," Donna murmured, "I wouldn't exactly call Severus an ordinary person…"

"So what's all of this got to do with me, then? You've tracked me down just to tell me there's another possible winner?"

"Well…almost. What we've actually tracked you down for, is to ask you to be a part of our Party. We need another member."

"I don't even know you."

"Yes, but that's not really important right now, is it?" The Doctor asked.

"…What's in this for me?"

"Spoken like a true politician," Donna muttered.

The Doctor gave her a warning glance before turning back to Stephenson. "If we win, we'll make you Prime Minister."

Stephenson looked taken aback by this. "And if you lose?"

"Then you don't lose out," the Doctor replied. "You don't need to be much in the public eye, so you won't be recognised in the street as the man who lost."

Donna glanced at the Doctor, admiring once again his ability to make things sound so innocent even when they weren't. If they lost…they would have to take over the country by force, if they wanted to stop whatever universal calamity the Doctor said awaited them, and Stephenson would be forever remembered in a negative light.

"And," the Doctor added, interrupting Donna's thoughts, "we'll pay you during the campaign. You said you could use the money."

Donna opened her mouth to protest that – how were they going to pay him? – but Severus kicked her lightly on the leg. She gasped in annoyance, and Stephenson immediately looked at her with a piercing gaze. He suddenly looked uncertain, and Donna knew it was because of her exclamation.

The Doctor, seeing he needed one final push, reached into one of his many coat pockets and pulled out a thick book, pushing it under Stephenson's nose. "Do you recognise the man on the cover?"

"Doctor," Severus murmured, "non-interference…"

The Doctor talked pointedly over him, sounding slightly more forceful and, to Donna's ears, slightly frantic. "You'll be remembered forever. This book was printed in the 31st century-"

Stephenson's head snapped up and he suddenly looked angry. "So this is all a joke, is it?"

Donna very nearly groaned. They'd been so close.

Stephenson stood up and threw the book roughly onto the Doctor's lap. "Look, I don't know who you are, and quite honestly I don't know if I'd want to after this stunt, but I want you to leave."

"Richard-"

"Don't! You can't just come into my house, gibbering on about Muggles and time travel and then expect to get chummy with me!"

"No, no, no – we came across wrong-"

"I got the message loud and clear," Stephenson said, his voice rising. "Who put you up to this? Was it someone from college? I knew Tim Dawkins would haunt me, even now – how much is he paying you? No, actually, forget it. I don't want to know. Just get out."

"But-"

"Out!" Stephenson roared, drowning out the Doctor's protests. "I don't want to see you ever again, you hear me?"

They were ushered unceremoniously out the front door, which was slammed in their faces. They stared at the door for a moment before turning one by one back to the street and climbing back into the car.

"Well?" Blunt demanded, seeing their shaken expressions.

"This genius," Donna snapped, "just managed to make him think it was a prank!"

"Doctor!" Blunt admonished, all colour draining from his face at the desperate expression that the Doctor was wearing. "You said we need him!"

"We do!" The Doctor ran a hand through his hair. "But I've just managed to _un_-convince him! I _never _manage that – how did I manage that? Normally it's the other way around!"

"Perhaps," Severus interjected calmly, "once he sees the broadcast he will be more open to the concept."

"Yeah!" Donna chimed in, hope beginning to blossom once more. "He can't say that's a joke – it'll be on the news!"

"We can only hope," Blunt said grimly, "but some people you can simply never convince of anything, no matter how much evidence you show them."

The car fell silent at that, and the Doctor slumped down in his seat slightly, staring sightlessly out the window as Blunt began to drive them back to the station. Donna stared at the house as they left the street, wondering if they'd just managed to start what could become a civil war as they were forced to struggle for power.

oOo

*Ten brownie points to whoever gets this reference.


	8. Car Chases

**Author's Note: **For those who remember, the reference from the last chapter, "I'll explain later" was a quote from the Comic Relief spoof of Doctor Who, starring (among many) Rowan Atkinson, Jim Broadbent and Hugh Grant. Go check it out, if you have yet to see it; it's available on Youtube. Also, thanks as always to all those who have reviewed, and I apologise for this late chapter – repetitive work burial really is great for crushing muses, but I'm working on it, so don't worry :p

oOo

**8. Car Chases.**

Richard shook his head in a mixture of bemusement and anger as he walked back into his living room and threw himself into an armchair. Something left behind on the sofa caught his eye and he picked it up, unable to contain a snort once he saw the title.

_Stephenson's Government: Steaming Through the Twenty First Century. _

Firstly, he mused as he flipped to the front page, curious despite himself, the pun was absolutely deplorable; whoever thought that it had a viable place on such a 'serious' book needed to have their head examined. Though really, he reminded himself, it wasn't a serious book, was it? Those people had been completely full of insane, made up, impossible stories, and it was all Dawkins' doing, he was almost certain of it.

Oh, they'd been good – that woman had shown no sign of ever having heard the name before, but he knew it was him nonetheless. Why else would three strangers come knocking on his door and try to convince him that he was a pivotal figure in history? It bordered on laughable.

He threw the book back onto the sofa and made his way into the kitchen, muttering under his breath. Five minutes later, and he was sat comfortably in front of the television with a cup of black coffee, staring vacantly at the screen as one of his mother's favourite programmes chose that badly-timed moment to begin its theme tune.

He struggled to force his emotions to the back of his mind. He was a grown man, damn it – besides which, he didn't want to cry. For some reason (and though he knew it was wrong) it felt like giving in. To what, he didn't know, but all he knew was that he had to fight against it for as long as he could. Besides, she wouldn't want him to be unhappy; she'd always known that he'd loved her. He'd always been closer to her than to his father, even when he had begun to grow up, and she had seemed to take pride in their close relationship.

He leaned forwards and placed his elbows on his knees, the television completely fading away from his vision, becoming blurred, unreal, as though it existed in a different reality altogether. Suddenly, he realised just how quiet the house felt, just how empty.

He blinked. No. No, he couldn't think about it, not now. It was just too painful. And yet…he couldn't bring himself to think of anything else. Raising his coffee to his lips almost unconsciously, he was jerked back to reality by the cold and unexpectedly strong taste of a hot drink left unattended. Spluttering, he levered himself out of his seat and poured the coffee down the sink in the kitchen, contemplating the kettle.

He couldn't be bothered to make another one. It just took too much energy. Instead, he leaned against the kitchen counter and simply listened to the closing credits of the television show – what was it called? For some reason his mind was a blank – and gazed out of the window, hardly seeing what was in front of him.

Distantly, he was aware of the sound of a car pulling up, the engine cutting out, and doors slamming, but he paid it no mind, caught up once more in his thoughts. He was always caught up in his thoughts, lately. It was like living in a dream world, like he was floating, watching himself from some point outside of his body. How could he know that anything around him was even real? It certainly didn't feel it. Any minute now, he would wake up, brutally jerked out of this nightmare by the oddly welcoming sound of an alarm clock – what he wouldn't give for his alarm clock to ring right now. For once, he didn't want to escape the annoying, high wailing sound that was his daily wake up call.

For a moment, he thought he heard it, but it was gone in an instant, and he was plunged into yet another nightmare.

oOo

"We've put surveillance around his house," Blunt announced, frowning into his coffee cup. "If he's not been convinced by you, Doctor, then he could be convinced by the other side."

The Doctor nodded morosely, pacing around the room. "I still can't believe he said no," he said, almost to himself.

Severus, who was sat in the chair behind the desk, turned to Donna and they shared a look. The Doctor had been in what Donna could only describe as 'charisma shock' after the debacle at Stephenson's house, and had been pacing and muttering in the office for hours. Donna, knowing the routine, had simply moved out of the way after the first few rounds of trying to console him, and Severus had been left to his own awkward attempts.

Needless to say, those hadn't gone down well, and he had given up, claiming the chair behind the desk and simply watching with barely restrained impatience. Blunt, meanwhile, had been busy seeing to copyright claims – which wasn't surprising, really, given the amount that they had stolen (or at least based upon) from Harry Potter. From what he had told them when he had returned to the room half an hour ago, he had explained that the copyright claims could not be fulfilled due to 'government business', and the matter had been settled.

When Blunt had finished outlining his success at preventing a copyright scandal, Donna had thought that the Doctor had looked distinctly jealous, if only for a moment, before going back to pacing. She also thought that she'd heard Severus snort at that, but she couldn't be sure. _Spies_.

But now, after much pacing and wearing down the carpet, the Doctor finally stopped walking and sat on the edge of the desk. "He said no. Donna," he exclaimed, as though it were for the first time, "he said no!"

Donna nodded, trying very hard not to snap. "Right, yeah…so what do we do now? We can't go to try to convince him again."

"We abduct him," Severus said.

The Doctor turned round and stared at Severus. "_Kidnap_ the future Prime Minister?"

Severus raised an eyebrow. "Interesting how you decide to develop a sense for the law now," he said snidely, "when it is our only option left."

"He's right," Blunt added, when the Doctor opened his mouth to argue.

The Doctor looked torn for a moment. "I know he's right," he said with a small exhalation of annoyance, "but I don't normally do things that way. It feels wrong – it's just not right. It's too…too," he gestured aimlessly with one hand.

"New?" Donna supplied. "Unpredictable? Inevitable?"

"…_Weird_, that's the one," the Doctor said, Donna's suggestions going completely over his head. "It's weird. Things never happen this way."

Severus shifted forward in his seat, looking slightly confused. "I was under the impression that it was usually the opposite. I thought that you generally never managed to convince people to listen to you."

"Yeah, but that was a TV show, in your world," Donna replied. "They have to do that for suspense, don't they?"

"She's right," the Doctor agreed. "Normally, it's just one flash of the psychic paper and we're all galloping off to slay the dragon – well…technically not a dragon, more like an Aldeboran* Giant Lizard, though they do look very similar, just without the fire…"

"Moving back to the point," Blunt interjected wryly, "I'll arrange for several plain clothes officers to bring Stephenson in."

"Bit late for that, sir," a policeman said, closing the door behind him. Everyone looked around in surprise. "Sorry," he muttered, finding everyone's stares pointed at him. "No one answered the door so I just walked in…"

"Never mind that," the Doctor said quickly, standing up again and walking over to the policeman, "what do you mean, it's a bit late?"

"Someone else has already taken him, sir."

Severus shot to his feet. "What?"

"Well, why didn't you stop them?" The Doctor asked. "You had people posted around his house; surely you could have stopped them!"

The man shifted uncomfortably, not meeting anyone's gaze. "It was a bit hard for them to do that, apparently, sir."

"Why?" Blunt demanded. "What happened?"

"John White was there."

"John White?" Everyone turned to stare at Donna, and she suddenly understood how the policeman had felt. It was a very unnerving feeling. "What would he be doing there?"

"I don't know. All I know is that he…uh…talked them into it."

"Talked…" the Doctor looked incredulous. "_Talked_ them into having Stephenson? How is that even possible? _Talked_…"

"Never mind that, let's just go!" Donna said, tugging on the Doctor's arm and pulling him towards the door.

"Right, yes, catch up before they get back to…before they get back to wherever they're going," he corrected himself. "Blunt, we need a car – where's the nearest car?"

"I'll drive," Blunt countered, rushing out of the room after them. "Thompson," he yelled at the policeman over his shoulder, "you get the other units in the area to keep a look out. Did they get a look at who took him, besides White?"

"I don't know, sir."

"Hang on," Donna said, slightly breathless due to the running, "why didn't the look-outs tell you themselves instead of sending a messenger?"

"They decided to escape," Severus drawled, "or they are in pursuit. I would hope that it is the latter."

"My officers are well trained," Blunt countered, "even if they did let him slip out of their grasp, they'll do their best to get him back."

They all jumped into a police car and Blunt was just firing up the engine when the Doctor stopped, hovering between sitting and standing, holding onto the door for support.

"Wait a minute…too conspicuous."

"Conspicuous?" Blunt demanded. "We don't have time to worry about stealth, Doctor!"

"No, we need something less obvious if we're going to have any chance of catching them," the Doctor argued, straightening up. "Do you have any other cars?"

Blunt turned the engine off with a sharp gesture and they all clambered out of the car. "Over here," he said shortly, clearly annoyed at their loss of time, and ran over to a normal looking, unmarked black car.

The Doctor shrugged. "It'll have to do."

"Have to do?" Donna repeated incredulously. "It's perfect, isn't it?" She strapped herself in quickly and shut her door. "No one will look twice at a car like this."

"But it's black," the Doctor explained. "Most cars are blue, aren't they?"

"You're impossible," Donna muttered as they careered out of the police station.

Blunt grabbed a small radio from the roof of the car and began speaking frantically into it while the Doctor picked up the map and started looking around for street signs. A few moments later, Blunt replaced the radio and barked some instructions at the Doctor, who searched the map frantically, turning it every which way.

"Seriously," Donna shouted as they almost crashed into a car while trying to overtake another, "Sat Nav!"

"Oh no," the Doctor exclaimed, "not a mini."

Donna craned her neck and saw, to her disbelief, that they were stuck behind a mini going at about twenty miles per hour, unable to overtake because of the traffic coming in the other direction. Blunt started hooting ferociously, but the mini simply slowed down.

"Stop hooting!" Donna advised, slapping Blunt on the shoulder. "My driving instructor always taught me to slow down if there's someone with a serious case of road rage behind me."

"This," Blunt said, clearly starting to get annoyed, "is precisely why we need police sirens."

"Haven't you got any?"

Blunt glanced at the Doctor incredulously. "You made me leave the police car!"

"Yes, but in films and TV shows you always have a siren you can put on the roof." When Blunt didn't reply, the Doctor stared at him. "Starsky and Hutch? No? What about the Pink Panther remake? I'm sure it hits someone in the face…"

"Just concentrate on the map, Space Man!"

"Right, yes, sorry. Left here."

Blunt was forced to swerve so hard that, had Donna not been strapped in, she would have been flung into Severus' lap. As it was, she found herself jerked about uncomfortably in her seat before the car righted itself, amidst protest from surrounding traffic, and they started careering down a much emptier street.

"How far from them are we?" Donna asked.

"The last I checked," Blunt replied, "about five minutes, provided we can get there on time."

"They will be travelling away from us," Severus pointed out.

"We've organised road blocks," Blunt explained. "I don't know whether they'll work – we have to get there quickly."

A shrieking siren punctuated the atmosphere and what little traffic there was on the road began pulling over. Blunt made full use of this and picked up speed, but it soon became apparent that the police car behind them wasn't stopping or changing direction.

The Doctor glanced at it in confusion. "Did you ask for that to be there?"

"No."

"Wonderful," Severus drawled. "We are the police, being pursued by the police."

"But that's ridiculous!" Donna exclaimed. "Don't they recognise this car? Don't you have the number plates written down or something?"

"As a matter of fact, this car is mine. I just bought it." Blunt paused to focus as he swerved dangerously around yet another corner. "I have yet to add it to the system."

"So that would be why they're chasing us," the Doctor deduced. "Right."

"What?"

"Right! Right – go right – you've missed it!"

"How was I supposed to know that's what you were telling me?" Blunt demanded.

"Because I said 'right', and when I say 'right' that usually means 'right', you know, 'don't go left' – no, no _don't_ turn left!"

Blunt screeched to a halt. "You said left!"

"No, I said _don't_ go left – oh, why don't people ever listen?"

"Because you _said-_"

Severus swore. "Just reverse! Reverse now!"

Blunt obediently put the car into reverse and slammed his foot down on the accelerator, ignoring the shrieking of the engine as he turned to look out the back window, his face the very embodiment of concentration. The police car behind them beeped at them frantically before swerving at the last minute and screeching to a halt just in time to avoid collision with another car.

Back on the previous road, Blunt took the turning that they had missed before diving down a side road, honking his horn.

"Where are you going? You're meant to be going straight ahead!"

"It's a short-cut. I hope."

"You hope?" The Doctor repeated. "Blimey, now I know how other people feel when I make things up. This is ridiculous!"

"Welcome to my world," Donna said dryly, hanging on for dear life.

They burst out onto another main road just as the radio crackled. "_Change of direction. Road block failed but managed to delay. Going East._"

"We'll have to turn around," the Doctor pointed out.

Blunt sped into a car park, screeched around in a circle and emerged out the other end in the fastest turn that Donna had ever seen, let alone been involved in.

"I think I'm getting car sick," she muttered, clinging to the seat and trying very hard not to panic.

Just as they were beginning to lose hope, a car zipped across their path, hooting, and Donna imagined she could see White in the back seat. "There they are!"

"I see them," Blunt replied, changing direction to chase after them.

The car in front seemed to realise what was going on and began to speed up, weaving in and out of traffic, narrowly avoiding what would have been several spectacular crashes. Blunt's knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel as though his life depended on it, and the Doctor had given up looking at the map, his eyes instead fixed upon the car ahead. Severus, Donna noted, was rummaging around in the pockets behind seats.

"Where are the guns?" He demanded several seconds later.

"No, we're not using guns."

"We need to get Stephenson back somehow, Doctor," Severus snapped. "Blunt, where are the guns?"

"There's only one and it's in my holster."

"Which side?" the Doctor asked. "I'll try and reach it."

"My right," Blunt replied.

There was an awkward pause. "Trust you to be left handed at a time like this. Right, ok, keep driving, I'm going under your arms."

"What – no, Doctor, you're getting in the-"

Whatever Blunt may have said was drowned out by the multiple blaring of horns as he briefly lost control of the car and drifted into the other side of the road as the Doctor accidentally jostled his arms.

Despite the situation, Donna found herself struggling to hold back a laugh as she watched the Doctor lie sprawled across Blunt's lap while Blunt tried desperately to get the car back on course. Moments later, the Doctor let out a triumphant exclamation and began moving back into his seat, though this time Blunt was ready and managed to mostly control his trajectory.

"Ok," the Doctor said, sitting back in his seat. "I've got the gun."

"Good, now fire it at them."

When the Doctor hesitated, Severus swore, leaned forwards, and yanked the weapon out of the Doctor's grasp. "Ridiculous. Blunt, get me at a good angle." And with that, he leaned out of the window and pointed his gun at the car in front, squinting as he waited patiently for Blunt to adjust their position.

After a few moments, Severus fired. Pedestrians ducked, dogs howled and several other cars swerved out of panic, but Severus grimaced.

"We can't shoot at them when they're going this fast!" the Doctor protested. "I thought we were going to wait until-"

"Don't be ridiculous, Doctor, you know very well we can't wait," Blunt snapped.

Severus fired again, just as another car drew up alongside them. Donna glanced sideways and saw to her dismay that they too were holding guns, this time pointing at them. "Severus!"

Hearing her yell, Severus ducked back into the car just as the other gunman fired, narrowly escaping a bullet. Blunt slowed down accordingly and the car sped past. Catching on to their plan, they soon matched their speed.

Looking distinctly rattled now, Blunt sped up once more as Severus continued firing. The Doctor stared out the back window, mouth hanging open. "But I was right. That's…no…"

Donna turned around, but the two vehicles were moving and changing speeds too much for her to see what the Doctor was seeing. Wailing sirens announced the arrival of what must have been the blockade, and the new car made a hasty retreat, leaving Blunt the freedom to pull up alongside the car that they had originally been chasing.

With deadly precision and no trace of emotion on his face, Severus shot its wheel and watched as the driver fought frantically to keep control of the vehicle before crashing through a shop display window.

A/N: *A lovely reference for all you Star Trek: TOS fans out there. :-)


	9. Meanwhile

**_Author's_****_ Note:_**_ Erm...ok, I don't really know what happened here, all I know is that it's been a heck of a long time between updates, so I apologise sincerely for that. Hopefully you haven't all forgotten about the story :p Anyway, things have died down a bit now so hopefully updates should be more regular, but it's quite busy being back at university, so if I do disappear again that's why, though I'll try to make sure that that doesn't happen again. Many thanks to 10Whovian, who has been the most patient beta in the world and fantastic at putting me straight on all the science-y bits - I would never have even been able to get this far otherwise. Also, thanks to those who are still reading, and I hope you enjoy this belated chapter!_

_oOo_

**9. Meanwhile...**

_It had first happened three weeks ago on the bus…_

Rose had just sat down and was beginning to drift into the realm of daydreams when a gentle whisper yanked her back to reality. She looked around in shock before her eyes fell on a young man in the seat behind her.

He was staring straight at her.

"Did you say something?"

He blinked at her, confused for a moment, before a gleam entered his eye. He leaned forward after a quick glance around him, and pointedly looked her in the eye. "Only that you're very beautiful," he murmured, his gaze gently coming to rest on her lips for the most fleeting of moments before they snapped back to her eyes. He smiled shyly, but kept eye contact.

Rose lifted an eyebrow. "Are you trying to chat me up…on a bus?" Her voice was teasing but not unfriendly.

The smile became slightly self-deprecating. "I admit I wish I'd seen you in a more romantic setting. But," he gestured their surroundings, "Fate didn't seems to want to give me a choice."

He was handsome, she noticed, looking him slowly up and down. He had messy black hair in dire need of a haircut, dark brown eyes and a charming smile. Perhaps he was a bit too pale and his shirt could have done with being ironed, but she had nothing against the scruffy look.

His hand rested on the back of her seat, balancing him against the swaying of the bus as he remained closer to her. His fingers were stained with oil, she noticed.

"I'm a mechanic," he informed her, having caught her staring.

She looked back into his eyes. _Brown…_

She swallowed and tried to beat her feelings into a cage in her mind, tempted to throw away the key. When would this stop? "A mechanic?" she repeated, her voice slightly unsteady. "You fix things."

For a moment the confusion returned. "…Yeah. But you know," he said, even more softly, so that she had to strain to hear him, "that's not all I do."

Brown eyes. He fixed things. He was scruffy… Suddenly, her heart wasn't really in this anymore. She didn't think it ever had been, at least, not completely.

"I also do dinner, films..." He must have noticed her lack of attention because he added, as though it were a question, "Dancing?"

She deliberately leaned back slightly, putting some distance between them. "I don't dance." Not anymore.

"We could do something else," the man continued, "whatever you feel like."

"I'm busy," she said distractedly, fighting to keep her mind in the present. "I'm sorry," she added, when guilt at his crestfallen expression joined the emotional rollercoaster she was currently stuck on. "It's nothing personal."

The man tried to smile, but failed. "Well," he said after a moment, "I can hardly blame you. Buses… _Never_ ask on a bus," he muttered to himself, walking to the front.

Rose watched him stand there for ten minutes until at last the bus pulled over and he got off, not once glancing back in her direction. Sighing, she looked out the window and tried her hardest not to think about the Doctor.

oOo

After that, it had escalated gradually. What had once been a whisper became an audible cough, a mumble. Once, it had been in a language she hadn't even understood.

_"Conduc__í__a muy lentamente, cuando…" _

She had looked it up later, her brow furrowed as she read the translation. There was absolutely no reason for a Spanish phrase like that to pop into her thoughts, especially not in a voice that she had never even heard before.

Five minutes later, she had been searching for psychological conditions, wondering if it was all finally getting to her. She didn't want to think that anything else could happen…not with him away when she needed him.

After all, when she had realised that she was stuck here forever…when he had…

She closed her eyes. But the Doctor was gone now. Or rather, _she_ was gone now. The only good thing out of this was that she had Mickey, her mother and, at last, a father – her alternate father, she reminded herself, though it was still better than she could ever have hoped for. It was as close to her life from _before_ as she could ever get.

She smiled slightly then, remembering the risks her mother had taken when she had hidden aboard the TARDIS, just to see if she was safe. More impressively, though, she had managed to make it past the Doctor, who she knew would have forced her to stay behind if he'd ever known. But then she'd pushed even further beyond Rose's expectations by deciding to stay with Pete, Rose's alternate father, in the hopes of being happy with him, and he with her, after all they had both lost. They were even going to have a baby together.

While at the time she had been angry with her mother for taking such crazy risks, she was now immeasurably grateful; now, they were living together as a family. Granted, it had taken some getting used to, having never had a father, and he worked above her as head of Torchwood (a constantly painful reminder to her of the Doctor), but she was just glad to have an opportunity to finally get to know the man at all.

And she was…content. At least, she told everyone that she was, because she hated the idea of having to explain her feelings, in all their intricacies, to everyone else…especially when everyone else was just beginning to settle into this life together and the Doctor was gradually being forgotten. The very thought that he could ever be forgotten shook her to her core and, as always, she had to close her eyes to keep herself from crying.

Realising that her thoughts had run away on another tangent, she closed the page she was looking at and shut the computer down. Nothing seemed to fit, anyway. But she really didn't want to think about this anymore.

oOo

A week later, the murmuring became even louder. She had dropped the plate she was putting away, smashing it into pieces. Her eyes had darted around her kitchen wildly, though she knew that she would find nothing.

She looked at her watch. 8 pm. Half an hour late, but still consistent enough with the others that she frowned into space.

A sudden knocking sound drew her back to life and she opened the door, jumping when she saw that someone was actually stood there.

"Did I make you jump?" Mickey asked, shouldering his way into her flat without even waiting for a reply or really looking at her. "Of course I did," he continued, pacing around her sofa.

Rose closed the door and stared at him. "What are you talking about?"

"You're jumpy, Rose," Mickey said quickly, forcefully.

"You're not exactly relaxed either," she pointed out.

Mickey ignored her and continued pacing, gesturing every now and then. "I was waiting for it to happen, Rose. I wasn't sure until now, but it's obvious. I was sat in the hallway for half an hour –your neighbours thought I was drunk or-"

"Wait, what were you doing in the hallway for half an hour?"

This was odd.

Mickey stopped pacing. "You've been jumpy lately."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"You're never jumpy. I'm never jumpy. We're both," he said, voice getting louder, gesturing between them, "jumpy."

"Mickey, people get-"

"How much have we been through together, Rose? Remember that time, when the Doctor was captured? I was hiding. I wanted us to run away. I was scared. But what did you do? You swung down to save him! You weren't paralysed with fear like I was!"

At the mention of the Doctor, Rose had flinched and looked down, staring helplessly at her feet. "Mickey, don't…"

"Rose."

She felt his hands on her, one on her shoulder, one lifting her head up so that she was looking at him.

"I know you. I know why you're terrified now when you weren't then. He's not here to give answers, and you're scared of doing it alone. But you can't ignore it anymore. You hear them too."

Rose's blood ran cold and her breath hitched in her throat.

"Something's happening, Rose, but you're just burying your head in the sand, and you never do that! Normally, you're the first one out the door looking for answers. And I know why. You're scared to do anything big without him there to-"

Rose took a step back, suddenly furious. "Leave him out of this, Mickey."

"Rose," Mickey said, dropping his hands back to his sides. "People are scared, something's happening, and you can't ignore it anymore! We need to get to the bottom of this - you can do this without him… _We _can do this."

Rose's mind was whirring, lost in the past, another life. "The ghosts… This happened before, in the other universe." She looked up at Mickey, to find a hopeful expression on his face. "We need to talk to my Dad, Mickey. The Doctor – we could-" she swallowed. "We could find him."

Mickey nodded, his eyes dropping to the floor in relief for the briefest of moments.

oOo

"You're saying it's those Cybermen again?" Jackie asked after Rose had explained everything to Pete. "But it can't be – the Doctor got rid of them, didn't he?"

Rose shook her head. "It might not be them again, Mum, but it's something similar, something that I've seen before. Pe – _Dad_," she corrected herself, still not used to calling him by that title, "someone's breaking down the walls of reality."

"Do you have any idea who it is?"

"No…I mean, it could be the Master, but I don't even know if he's alive," she muttered. "It could be anyone. But whoever it is," she added, her voice growing stronger, "it won't be pretty. If you break down the walls of reality, you control everything, and we won't have the power to stop them. We need to team up with the Doctor, tell him what's going on, if he doesn't know already."

Pete reflected for a moment, and then nodded. "We need to send a message into that universe."

"No, a message will never be seen in time," Rose said. "You need to send a person."

Silence reigned for what felt like an impossibly long time before Jackie spoke quietly, almost as though she were afraid of what she was going to say. "You can't, Rose."

"Someone has to."

Jackie stood up then, looking vaguely panicked, but stopped short of approaching Rose, clearly unsure what to do. "It's too dangerous!"

"No, it'll be fine-"

"Oh no you don't!" Jackie said, suddenly raising her voice and pointing a finger into her daughter's face. "Don't you try to pull the wool over my eyes, not this time! I've heard enough from the Doctor and from Pete to know that this sort of thing could kill you!"

"Mum, I'll be fine! We'll do tests first, we'll make sure it's safe-"

"No, you won't!" Jackie said, before realising how much force she had put into her voice and dropping it slightly. "I know you, Rose. You'll go haring off into that other universe as soon as you can! You'd do anything to get the Doctor back, even if you killed yourself doing it, and I can't let you!"

"Mum, I know what I'm doing," Rose snapped, beginning to get annoyed and frustrated. "I'm not a child anymore."

"No, you're not, but that doesn't make me any less your Mum. What'll I do if you never come back?"

"You've got Pete, Mickey," Rose gestured the small bump that was her mother's belly, "Tony. You'll be fine."

Jackie opened her mouth to argue more, but Pete put a gentle hand on her arm, effectively silencing her. Jackie settled for glaring at Rose before sitting beside Pete, allowing him to take over.

"I'll make sure that she's safe, Jackie," Pete promised, before turning to Rose. "I'll send you to look for the Doctor," he said slowly, "under certain conditions. One – you must remain in contact with someone on this end at all times. I don't want anything to go wrong over there. Two – you'll allow someone to go with you, if we have the time and ability to send another person. Three – you won't leave before we've decided it's safe."

"But you're jumping between realities!" Rose exclaimed incredulously. "It's never going to be safe!"

Pete simply stared at her for a moment until she nodded. Satisfied, he turned to Jackie. "I'm going to head into the office now, if that's ok. We'll need to get started on this as soon as possible, now that the breakthroughs are becoming more frequent."

"Yeah, sure," Jackie allowed, leaning in to give him a brief kiss on the lips.

Rose stood and walked with Pete to the front door, not daring to glance back at her mother, knowing she would still be very annoyed with her.

oOo

_Present day…_

"I think we should send a message through, see if anyone answers," Mickey said, echoing what everyone else was thinking.

They had been measuring the energy around the reality leakages, working out what type of power was needed and just how much. All that remained now was to discover a way to make the transition between realities safe for a human subject.

"No," Rose said, causing everyone in the room to turn and stare at her. "A message is too small. We need to send something alive, to make sure we've got the power ratio right and that the jump isn't fatal."

"We can't send a person," Pete pointed out. "They could never come back."

"Then we should try and bring something into this universe," Rose suggested. "Something that would take the same sort of power that a person would. How's the Visualizer coming along?"

Everyone turned as one to stare at Tucker, a young but brilliant technician who had been working on creating a device to project what was on the other side of the wall to a screen in their reality. He called it the Multi-Dimensional Television, but everyone else insisted on calling it the Visualizer – it was just so much shorter and easier to say (and, in Rose's opinion, more catchy).

Tucker nodded. "It's still in black and white and it's quite grainy, but it'll work."

"Good," Pete said, nodding. "Then we'll try it later, when the walls are more broken down. Everyone keep an eye on the walls – we don't want to be caught out if they're early."

With that, the room burst into activity as everyone went to their assigned work stations. Machines beeped as they were activated and everyone settled in for several long hours of monitoring the most frequent breakthrough points.

Rose simply stood for a moment, thinking. She was so close to the Doctor, now. It was only a matter of time.


	10. A Dead End?

**Author's Note:**Ok, I know I promised quicker updates and have come to the conclusion that perhaps that was just giving everyone false hope; I massively under-estimated my workload this year, and I've been stuck trying to keep up since the last update. But an update is here (at last) so I hope that, if there's anyone still reading, you'll enjoy it. The next chapter has been started so hopefully that will get the ball rolling a bit and we'll be well on our way to the end of the story. Thanks again to 10Whovian who as always has been a massive help :) And again, my sincerest apologies (if there are any Blackadder fans out there, I'm sure that quote will mean something to you if you pronounce it in an exaggerated German accent) and on with the story!

**10. A Dead End?**

"Who are you working for?"

John White sat stiffly in the chair, blinking uncomfortably in the light of the interrogation room. Donna stood in between the Doctor and Severus, watching the proceedings, while Blunt sat in the chair opposite White. In another room, an accomplice was being questioned while the driver had been sent to a nearby hospital. Fortunately, his injuries were not serious but they were enough to exempt him from questioning. Stephenson was being looked after in a different room and being filled in on the situation.

"I told you," White said wearily, looking distinctly fed up with the proceedings, "I'm a politician; I work for the party. And you have no right to arrest me – my lawyer will be hearing about this!"

"We have every right to arrest you," Blunt countered, "when you are implicated in a kidnap attempt. Now, I won't ask you again. Who exactly are you working for?"

White sighed. "Harold Hozyain."

From the corner of her eye, Donna saw the Doctor step forwards suddenly. "Say that again."

"Harold Hozyain."

Without warning, the Doctor burst out laughing. "Oh, that's brilliant, absolutely brilliant! I've always said if he hadn't turned to crime he could have been amazing. _Hozyain_." He shook his head. "Genius!"

"Why?" Donna asked. "What's so special about a surname?"

"It was pronounced in a thick English accent," the Doctor explained, "but I'm fairly certain – 99.9%, in fact – that his surname means "master" in Russian. Though actually, I can't be sure – something's disrupting the language signal."

"Language signal?" White asked, looking completely bemused. "What is going on? I have a right to know!"

"Do not," Severus hissed, stepping menacingly forward, "pretend to be innocent. We have wasted enough time dancing around the subject. You know very well what is going on and we want you to tell us – it is a simple enough concept," he sneered.

"There isn't anything to tell – ask the others!"

"Oh, but there is," the Doctor said, standing next to Severus. Together, they made quite an intimidating image, Donna noted. "Kidnap doesn't happen without a reason. You want Stephenson, but why? What exactly are you planning?"

When White looked reluctant to talk, Blunt raised an eyebrow. "Things will be much easier for you if you simply tell us."

A charming smile slipped across White's face and he leaned back in his chair, suddenly the very image of relaxation. "Gentlemen – and lady," he said with a smiling nod in Donna's direction, "there is no reason for us to be fighting when we all have so much to do. What do you say to us all simply forgetting the entire matter and going our separate ways, hmm?"

Donna blinked. "Maybe he really doesn't know anything."

The Doctor whipped around to stare at her. "What?"

"He doesn't know anything," Donna said, more certain this time. She could see White smiling and smiled back. "No, he can't, can he? I mean, you said it yourself – he's not who you're looking for, because you didn't recognise him like you said you would."

At a flash, the Doctor was by her side, poking his screwdriver into her face, and she gasped in shock. "Oi? What's that for?"

The Doctor stepped back, confused. "Donna, what's wrong?"

"What do you mean, 'what's wrong'?" She demanded as the Doctor stepped aside. White was still smiling. "He's right, isn't he? He doesn't know anything."

The Doctor stared at her. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure, it's obvious!"

He turned around to glare at White. "What have you done to her?"

White smiled languidly. "Me? Why, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Blunt sighed. "I don't think we're going to get anything out of him."

The Doctor turned to stare at Blunt. "White," he said, still staring at Blunt, "tell me what you've done to them. Now."

"I told you. Nothing."

"Somehow I doubt that."

Severus made a small noise of consideration as he peered from Donna to Blunt to White and back again. "He hasn't moved," he concluded eventually. "They are on the other side of the room…no, he can't have done anything."

"What? Severus, not you too! You of all people should know that he doesn't need to move!"

"Movement does help," Severus drawled.

"But, but… _magic_!" the Doctor exclaimed, beginning to look at a loss as he glanced at each of them in turn. "Wizards, witches, hypnotism – wait!" He whirled back to stare at White, sticking a finger in his face. "That's it, isn't it? You've hypnotised them!"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Donna snapped. "It doesn't exist."

The Doctor's mouth fell open. "Derren Brown? No? Nobody? Oh, come on! Just a minute ago you were all against him!"

"And we were wrong," Severus said, as though it physically pained him to admit to a fault.

"Let them go," the Doctor demanded. White didn't move. "Right, out! Everybody out!"

"I'm not going anywhere, Space Man!"

"Oh, fine, I'll just have to do this, then," the Doctor muttered, yanking them all out of the room one by one, pushing them into the corridor. Once outside, he pointed at each of them in turn. "Stay here, all of you. I won't be a minute."

And with that he ducked back into the interrogation room, shutting the door behind him with a slam. Donna blinked, suddenly feeling as though she was fighting to shake off mental cobwebs.

"What…oh my God! Did I say that White hadn't done anything?"

Severus frowned, looking supremely uneasy. "I think we all did…"

"But…but that's crazy! We can't let the Doctor go back in there, he'll be hypnotised too-" She reached out to open the door but a strong hand on her arm held her back. She turned around to glare at Severus. "Let me go, Plant Man! He's alone in there! He could be-"

"Nothing will happen to him. He was the only one unaffected," Severus explained as though talking to a particularly slow student.

"He's right," Blunt added, "if anyone's qualified to be in there, it's the Doctor. It must only affect humans, whatever it is."

"A non-magical version of the Imperius," Severus murmured, raising an eyebrow. "I had no idea that such a thing existed."

"So what do we do now, then?" Donna asked.

"We do exactly what he said," Severus said bluntly. "Unless you would rather go back in there and become White's puppet?"

Donna sighed and sat on the floor, her back against a wall. "None of this makes any sense."

"We know that someone is trying to take over," Blunt said.

"Yeah, but that's pretty much it. I mean, _why_ does he want to?" Donna pondered. "How is he doing it? This…" she waved a hand at the door, "just isn't natural, and the Doctor doesn't seem to have ever seen it either, but he said he knew the man behind everything."

"White is obviously an accomplice," Severus said. "Perhaps from another planet."

"Yes, but where?"

"I have no idea."

Donna sighed. "And we don't even know why they wanted Stephenson-"

Severus scoffed. "That much is obvious. They knew that we wanted him, so they decided to take him before we could. Possibly even eliminate him as a threat to their power, if they realised how important he was."

"But the Doctor-"

"He wanted to see how much White had been told," Severus explained. "How much he would be willing to admit, how easy he would be to break. So far, he has established that White knows at least partially what is happening, if not nearly everything."

"So now he can start asking more specific questions?"

Severus nodded. "Hopefully he will succeed this time."

Silence fell and tension rose as they waited for what seemed like an eternity for the Doctor to re-emerge from the room. People bustled past, paying them little mind, caught up in their own day. Donna leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes, daydreaming of a nice relaxing bath. Blunt and Severus talked quietly, presumably discussing strategy, but Donna couldn't hear everything that was being said and tuned them out.

An hour later, the door opened, jerking Donna out of her reverie. She clambered to her feet. "So? What happened? What's going on?"

The Doctor closed the door behind him and leaned against it, running a hand through his hair. "He wouldn't actually admit much, but his reactions to my questions speak volumes. He knows about the TARDIS, he knows about Stephenson, and he knows about the plan, but he won't tell me any of it."

"So what do we do?"

"We let him go, Donna."

"Let him go?"

"If we let him go," Severus explained, "we can follow him at a distance. It would be much more useful than keeping him here."

"But we might lose him!"

"We have to take that risk," the Doctor said grimly. "We'll need plain clothes policemen."

"And guns," Severus added pointedly. The Doctor grimaced. "We can't follow him, only to arrive at their headquarters and find ourselves unable to do anything about it. It would be impossible to get your TARDIS back with only our fists to defend ourselves."

"Fine," the Doctor said tersely. "But I won't carry one."

"Speaking of guns," Donna remembered, turning to Severus, "where did you learn to shoot like that?"

"Muggles."

"You shot Muggles?" Donna asked, incredulous.

Severus smirked. "No, they taught me. Obviously."

"Don't get snide with me, Plant Man! How was I supposed to know that? With you, 'Muggles' could have meant anything!"

"Right, not really the time to be arguing about Muggles and guns, Donna. Ok, so this is our plan…"

oOo

"You got back."

White nodded nervously, closing the office door behind him and trying to resist the urge to fidget as he locked eyes with his employer. Inside his own mind, he snorted. "Employer" indeed. "They couldn't get anything out of me."

"Nothing?"

"Just your name," White found himself saying, then immediately clamped his mouth shut. Why did he say that? He braced himself as his employer put down his pen and looked at him.

"My name."

"Yes, sir, but – but that was all I told them."

"You idiot! The Doctor _knows_ my name – I told you, if you get caught, tell them nothing! Not one thing, not one syllable!"

"But…I thought you wanted him to find you?"

Hozyain rolled his eyes. "Yes, but this is too _early_. I wanted him to come to me on my own terms…" he broke off, narrowing his eyes. "White, were you followed?"

"Briefly, but I lost them when a bus got between me and their car."

Hozyain stood up. "Are you _sure_?"

White swallowed and took a step back. "Yes, perfectly. I-"

"Then hope for your sake that you're right," Hozyain advised. "I don't want this plan to fail. Not again."

oOo

The Doctor scrambled out of the car and sprang to his feet, looking eerily like a meerkat as he struggled to search the crowd for White. "Why does this always happen?" he ranted as Severus and Donna joined him on the pavement, Blunt remaining in the car. "Why do buses _always_ arrive when you don't want them to?"

"Probably because they're never there when you want them," Donna sniffed.

"He will not have gone far," Severus pointed out. "To disappear as he did means that he knows he was being followed. He is either hiding in a different building in an attempt to lose us or he has reached headquarters and does not believe that we can find them."

"Brilliant," Donna said sarcastically. "Now all we have to do is find him in a crowded city. Again."

Severus rolled his eyes at her. "When I was in the other universe we had headquarters which were protected by spells. Perhaps technology can achieve the same thing."

The Doctor, who had been scanning the crowd for White, snapped his eyes back to Severus and grinned widely. "And they say wizards are ignorant."

Severus scowled, clearly unsure whether he was supposed to be insulted.

The Doctor whipped out his sonic screwdriver and started pointing it across the street. Blunt, who had been watching from the car, spoke up. "I just got a call – I need to be at the scene of a bank robbery down town."

"Do you think it's related?" Donna asked.

Blunt started to shrug then stopped, catching himself, and simply raised his eyebrows instead. "Possibly, but it's hard to say before an investigation has been conducted. Will you be able to find your way back to the station?"

Severus nodded. "We have ways of calling you if we need assistance."

Taking that as permission to leave, Blunt turned the engine back on and put on his lights and siren, pulling out into the busy road and quickly disappearing. The Doctor took advantage of this confusion to run quickly across the road, Severus and Donna following once they realised he'd gone.

Donna panted to a halt at the end of an alleyway and watched as the Doctor started banging his sonic screwdriver.

"It's definitely around here somewhere, but there's too much interference…" he banged it again.

"Don't you ever break things?" Donna asked. "I mean, I always wondered; whenever I watch you trying to work your technology, you're always smashing it with your hand. Doesn't that break it? Or is it some super-resistant-mysterious-time-lord-stuff?"

The Doctor looked affronted. "I don't _try_ to work my technology!" He undermined himself by banging the screwdriver again and putting it to his ear, listening for any changes.

"Right, because what you're doing now is how it's supposed to work. You can't even drive the TARDIS without crashing into the wrong decade!"

"That's a bit of an over-exaggeration," the Doctor retorted, "coming from the woman who can't change a light bulb."

"I can change light bulbs, but yours are just weird! What kind of a light bulb has hands and tries to stay in the fitting?"

"I've got it!" The Doctor announced, just as Severus opened his mouth to stop the argument. "It's faint, but it's there. Now, I just need to find a way in…" He started knocking on one of the walls of the alleyway.

"What are you doing?" Donna asked. "It's _brick_, it's not going to be hollow!"

"You'd be surprised," the Doctor murmured before stepping back, looking perplexed. "Ok, so that's not how we get in. How about…" he started rummaging around in some nearby bins, throwing rubbish onto the floor and scanning each object individually, before holding up what looked like an empty egg carton," …this?"

He pressed down on one of the sections. When it failed to do anything, he frowned and pressed another one.

"Maybe you need the eggs?" Donna suggested.

"No, it's definitely one of these… It's an Evident Gateway Generator, it has to be one of these…the egg has nothing to do with it. Well, besides the name, of course."

"EGG?" Severus asked, a disbelieving look on his face.

"I think the inventor was a bit eccentric. Ah, there we go." The bricks gradually changed colour to reveal a bright red metal door. "See? Evident gateway."

"But…shouldn't you have felt metal when you were over there before?" Donna asked.

"As a genuine rule these EGGs come equipped with perception filters. You've seen my psychic paper, it's the same idea, only on a larger scale. I couldn't see it because I had no idea what was there. It's actually very clever."

"Perhaps we should go in?" Severus asked sarcastically. "Unless you two would rather discuss EGGs as the world is being-"

"Scrambled," Donna interrupted before she could stop herself. Both men turned to stare at her. "The world being scrambled…destroyed…"

"Yes," the Doctor said dubiously, still staring at Donna, the corners of his mouth twitching in repressed laughter, "let's just go in."


End file.
